^  ,. 


PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


SAe//. 


BX    5937    .L779 

Littlejohn,    A.    N.    1824-190 

Condones   ad   clerum 


Number. 


.;.,  4->.-r.-- 


)-. 


^ 


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in  2009  with  funding  from 

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CONCIONES    AD     CLERUM 


1879-1880. 


BY 


A.   N.^LITTLEJOHN,   D.D. 

Bishop  of  Long  Island. 


NEW  YORK: 
THOMAS  WHITTAKER, 

2  AND  3  Bible  House. 
i88i. 


COPYBIGHT,    1880, 
BY 

THOMAS  WHITTAKER. 


TO 

THE  RT.  REV.  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Bishop  of  Connecticut, 

from  whom,  during  a  period  op  more  than  thirty  tears, 

i  have  received  many  kindnesses  that  i  can 

never  hope  to  repay, 

and  by  whom  i  have  been  honored  with  a  friendship 

which,  i  pray,  may  be  continued 

to  the  end, 

©^s  Volume  is  giffcctiottatelg  Ittscribeb, 

BY  THE   AUTHOR. 


of  Pr//7/ 

>v>^    ♦ 

^  ucT  1  r^5  "^ 


PREFACE. 

On  four  occasions  during  Lent,  1879  and  1880,  I 
met  tlie  clergy  of  my  Dioce|e  for  conference  on  the 
duties  and  the  labors  of  the  Ministry.  What  I  said  to 
them  is  contained  in  the  following  pages.  I  have 
added  nothing  except  a  few  notes  and  Appendices. 
Knowing  how  much  has  been  written  on  the  same 
subjects,  and  the  difficulty  of  making  any  fresh 
contribution  to  their  discussion  which  would  be  of 
much  value,  or  would  be  likely  to  command  at- 
tention, I  should  not  have  published  these  Ad- 
dresses but  for  the  request  of  the  Clergy  who 
heard  them. 

A.  ^.  L. 

St.  John  Baptist's  Day,  1880. 


r. 
CLERGY   AND    PEOPLE. 

II. 
THE    CURE     OF     SOULS. 

III. 

THE  GRACE    OF    ORDINATION; 

HOW    TO    QUICKEN    A2:iD    DEVELOP    IT. 


I. 

CLEEGY    AND    PEOPLE. 

We  are  here  for  no  general  or  uncertain  purpose. 
"We  have  met  at  the  beginning  of  this  solemn  sea- 
son of  the  Church's  year,  which  has  always  been 
used  to  quicken  and  refresh  the  spiritual  life  of 
clergy  and  people,  for  three  definite  ends  :  (1)  by 
united  prayers  and  supplications  to  obtain  a  fresh 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  ourselves  and  for 
those  committed  to  our  charge  ;  (2)  by  a  devout 
partaking  of  the  Sacrament  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood  to  draw  nearer  to  Him  from  whom  our  com- 
mission to  minister  in  holy  things  is  derived,  to  en- 
ter more  earnestly  into  His  example,  His  character, 
His  work,  as  the  Pattern  Priest,  Prophet,  and  Ru- 
ler of  a  redeemed  humanity,  and  so  to  stir  up  the 
gift  that  is  in  us  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  ;  (3)  as 
the  ordained  officers  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  to 
take  counsel  together  on  certain  questions  of  dut}^ 
and  work,  which,  though   never  absent   from  our 


8  Condones  ad  Clerzim. 

thoughts,  yet,  at  this  time,  have  a  special  claim 
upon  our  consideration.  What  I  may  be  able  to 
say  may  be  of  comparatively  little  moment.  Mj' 
aim  will  be  accompKshed  if,  as  the  result  of  this 
assembling  together,  you  shall  be  more  deeply  im- 
pressed with  a  sense  of  the  fellowship  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,  and  of  the  duty  and  power  of  that 
fellowship  to  bring  you  into  closer  sympathy,  to 
enable  you  to  bear  one  another's  burdens  and  so 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ — to  give  to  the  younger  and 
less  experienced  some  light  and  courage  and 
strength  drawn  from  acknowledged  veterans  in  the 
service. 

The  first  subject  to  be  handled  is  ourselves  ;  the 
second,  our  flocks  ;  the  third,  our  office,  or  at  least 
one  phase  or  function  of  it. 

Ourselves,  ministers  of  Christ,  stewards  of  the 
Divine  mysteries,  priests  of  the  Most  High  God, 
leaders  and  teachers  of  the  faithful,  heralds  of  sal- 
vation to  the  unbelieving  and  impenitent,  by  whom, 
as  in  Christ's  stead,  God  beseeches  all  men  to  turn 
from  their  sins  and  be  saved  :  as  such,  what  are 
our  special  duties  and  exercises  at  this  time  ?  When 
the  Church  solemnly  calls  upon  her  clergy  and  her 


Clergy  and  People. 


people  to  examine  and  try  their  ways,  to  sanctify 
a  fast,  to  tlirust  the  world  aside,  and  to  enter  upon 
a  severer  discipline,  it  is  plain  that,  whatever  the 
work,  the  leaders  must  go  before  the  led,  the  shep- 
herds must  move  in  advance  of  the  sheep,  the  com- 
missioned officers  must  precede  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  militant  host.  If  the  people  are  to  be  lifted  to 
a  higher  plane  of  duty  and  worship,  their  priests 
must  stand  where  they  can  beckon  them  up  to  it. 
Therefore  inquiry,  scrutiny,  judgments,  reform,  re- 
vival must  begin  with  them. 

There  is  no  time  and,  in  your  hearing,  no  need 
to  describe  the  ideal  of  the  ministry  as  we  find  it  in 
the  New  Testament  or  in  the  hves  of  those  who 
have  embodied  it.  We  know  that  our  ministry 
should  be  a  growth — if  not  in  the  gifts  and  faculties 
which  compose  it,  at  least  in  the  power  to  use 
them.  "What  is  human  and  earthly  in  it  should  be 
all  the  while  merging  more  and  more  into  the  di- 
vine and  heavenly.  Its  dominant  motive  should 
be  constantly  changing  from  the  less  to  the  more 
perfect.  Beyond  all  else  intrusted  to  us,  it  enfolds 
the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  and  witnesses  to 
the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.     As  such,  to  be  true 


lO  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

to  its  own  law,  it  sliould  find  in  each  year  the  evi- 
dence of  higher  purity  of  tone  and  increased  fruit- 
fulness  in  the  grace  and  knowledge  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  This,  we  are  all  ready  to  exclaim, 
should  be  the  case.  But,  alas  !  experience  tells  a 
different  story.  "What  a  struggle  to  maintain  even 
a  respectable  average  of  gifts,  motives,  labors  ! 
How  many  fall  below  that  average  !  How  few 
rise  above  it  !  How  many  decline  from  the  fervor 
of  devotion  and  concentration  of  purpose  with 
which  they  began  their  ministry  !  How  few,  af- 
ter ten  or  twenty  years  of  labor,  can  honestly 
claim  to  have  advanced  in  these  qualities  !  We 
may  say,  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  ;  and  it  is 
not.  I  may  not  dwell  upon  the  causes.  It  is 
enough  to  name  them  ;  for  the  siifficient  proof  of 
their  power  is  in  our  own  consciousness.  There  is 
the  deadening  effect  of  routine.  There  is  the  hard- 
ening influence  of  constant  familiarity  with  holy 
Ihings,  either  as  objects  of  mental  contemplation  or 
as  themes  of  public  speech.  There  is  the  subtle 
temptation  to  merge  a  Divine  vocation  into  a  re- 
spectable profession,  which  owes  us  a  living.  There 
is  the  dull,  steady  attrition  of  the  world,  with  its 


Clergy  and  People.  ii 

coarser  aspirations,  its  lower  motives,  its  selfish  in- 
stincts. There  is  the  deterioration  of  spiritual 
power  that  comes  of  obscurity,  discouragement,  ap- 
parent failure,  lack  of  appreciation  among  the  flock, 
poverty,  and  change,  and  the  gradual  paralysis  of 
faith  in  the  triumph  of  good  over  evil,  truth  over 
falsehood.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  to  be  habit- 
ually hopeful,  habitually  fervid,  and  habitually  en- 
ergetic, wlien  it  is  found  that  these  qualities  do  not 
produce  the  results  we  anticipated.  Now,  these 
are  the  facts  ;  this  is  the  common  experience.  And 
yet  woe  to  that  man  of  God  set  in  official  position 
who  succmnbs  to  them,  who  consciously  allows  this 
deterioration  of  a  Divine  gift  and  commission  to  go 
on.  It  must  be  resisted  at  all  hazards  ;  and  to  re- 
sist it  successfully,  a  strong  counter  effort  must  be 
put  forth  ;  and  it  is  part  of  the  value  of  Lent  that 
it  sets  us  at  work  in  this  direction,  and  provides 
special  helps  and  stimulants  for  doing  it.  This  is 
the  time  for  self -scrutiny  and  introspection,  for  re- 
examining the  interior  drift  of  our  lives,  for  turn- 
ing up  to  the  eye  of  the  memory  and  conscience 
not  only  tlie  original  covenant  obhgations  put  on 
with  our  Christianity  in  Holy   Baptism,  but   also ' 


12  Condones  ad  Cleruin. 

the  special,  superadded  vows  of  our  priestly  voca- 
tion. 

We  once  declared,  at  a  very  solemn  moment,  that 
we  beheved  ourselves  inwardly  called  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  this  oifice  and  ministry  in  the  Church  of 
God.  Has  the  evidence  of  that  call  strengthened 
or  weakened  with  the  lapse  of  years  ?  Have  we  re- 
gretted or  rejoiced  over  the  place  and  work  which 
that  call  assigned  us  ?  "Was  there  a  reality  in  the 
words,  ' '  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost, ' '  or  have  we 
doubted  whether  anything  at  all  was  received  by  us 
at  that  moment  ?  We  vowed  to  be  diligent  in 
2Drayer  and  in  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
for  this  end  to  lay  aside  the  study  of  the  world  and 
the  flesh.  Have  we  done  so  ?  I  need  not  go  over 
the  rest.  I  simply  indicate  the  line  of  inquiry. 
This  is  the  time  to  compare  what  we  have  been  and 
have  done  with  what  we  promised  to  be  and  to  do. 
As  we  do  so,  "  Oh  for  one  sight  of  the  Cross,  the 
pierced  hand,  the  wounded  side  !  Oh  for  one 
keen  throb  of  remembrance  !  How  shall  I  look  on 
Him  whom  I  have  betrayed  ?  How  shall  I,  on 
whom  His  hand  was  laid,  to  whom  His  powers 
were  granted,"  face  the  peril  of  having  preached 


Clergy  and  People,  13 

unto  otliers,  and  in  the  end  of  being  a  castaway 
myseK. 

St.  Paul  was  vigilant  and  bold  in  warning  those 
whom  he  set  over  the  Churches  under  his  care  to  be- 
ware lest  their  ministry  should  be  blamed.  With- 
out repeating  his  language,  I  may  say  that  his  warn- 
ing is  always  timely,  and  especially  now.  To  what 
extent,  if  at  all,  the  ministry  is  dechning  in  its  in- 
herent as  well  as  traditional  influence,  it  is  needless 
to  inquire  in  this  connection  ;  but  that  it  is  blamed, 
among  other  things,  for  acquiescing  in  a  standard 
of  professional  demeanor  and  service  below  that  set 
forth  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  observed  by  tlie 
best  and  wisest  in  this  Divine  vocation  in  every  age, 
for  allowing  ^its  rule  of  Hfe,  and  the  minor  morals 
growing  out  of  it,  to  be  adulterated  and  enfeebled 
by  an  undue  conformity  to  the  self-indulgent  ways 
of  a  social  life,  called  Christian  by  courtesy — that 
it  is  blamed  for  this  there  can  be  no  doubt  ;  and  to 
the  full  extent  that  the  blame  is  just,  there  is  a  loss 
of  spiritual  power  in  every  sermon  that  is  preached, 
in  every  office  that  is  administered,  in  every  case  of 
direct  dealing  with  the  individual  soul. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  damage   wrought 


14  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

among  us  by  the  false  liberalism  or  avowed  scepti- 
cism of  tlie  day,  or  by  the  unfortunate  divisions  of 
Christendom,  with  all  their  sect  rivalries  and  con- 
tentions, it  is  my  belief  that  the  weakest  points  in  our 
line,  offensive  and  defensive,  are  precisely  those 
which  have  been  created  by  the  gradual  intrusion  of 
tastes,  methods,  indulgences,  practices,  which,  in 
a  hundred  ways,  are  the  known  and  accepted  badges 
of  baptized  worldliness.  I  need  not  stop  for  ex- 
amples and  illustrations  in  our  general  Church  life. 
I  am  speaking  now  of  and  to  the  clergy — the  chosen 
deputies  of  Christ — the  commissioned  shepherds  of 
the  flock.  And,  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to  what  I 
mean,  I  will  take  a  single  case  in  point.  It  is 
sometimes  laid  down  as  a  sort  of  axiom,  which  no 
one  is  likely  to  dispute,  that  nothing  can  be  wrong 
in  a  clergyman  which  is  not  just  as  wrong  in  a  lay- 
man. That  priest  has  already  become  sadly  demor- 
alized who  can  find  comfort  in  such  a  view,  or  who 
can  accept  it  as  a  convenie^it  apology  for  doing 
doubtful  things,  or  being  found  in  doubtful  places 
or  in  doubtful  company.  That  man's  eyes  are  al- 
ready set,  not  on  things  above,  but  on  things  be- 
neath.    In  his  wish  to  lower  for  himself  the  minis- 


Clergy  and  People,  15 

terial  standard,  he  lias  learned  to  reason  backward 
It  is  said,  such  and  such  amusements — theatre-go- 
ing and  opera-going,  for  instance — 'moderately  en- 
joyed, and  with  due  discrimination,  are  clearly 
not  wrong  in  a  layman  if  he  is,  in  other  re- 
spects, a  good  man.  Why,  then,  should  they 
be  wrong  in  a  clergyman  ?  Now,  the  true  an- 
swer is  to  be  found  not  in  a  nice  balancing  of 
opposing  expediencies,  nor  in  supposed  conse- 
sequences  to  others,  one  way  or  the  other.  The 
answer  is  above  and  beyond  all  casuistry.  If  it  be 
the  true  answer,  it  will  not  be  reasoned  out.  It  will 
come  leaping  like  a  spontaneous  impulse  from  hearts 
that  have  vowed  to  take  up  the  cross,  and,  forsaking 
all,  to  follow  Christ.  It  is  implied  in  every  line  of 
the  Ordinal,  that  there  is  no  complete  service  for 
Christ  that  does  not  begin,  continue,  and  end  in  self- 
sacrifice.  The  priest  who  means  to  be  an  ensam- 
ple  to  the  flock,  and  whose  soul  is  aflame  with  the 
holy  fire  that  burned  in  the  Master's  soul,  is  never 
casting  about  to  find  the  last  possible  barrier  that 
separates  him  from  unlawful  or  worldly  indulgence, 
never  asking  what  he  may  do  without  disgracing 
his  vocation  or  creating  scandal,   never  discussing 


1 6  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

the  precise  amount  of  conformity  to  the  world 
which  he  may  venture  upon  without  loss  of  reputa- 
tion or  influence.  Oh,  no  !  The  one  question 
with  him  is,  how  near  he  can  get  to  the  mind  that 
was  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  roads  lead  in  opposite 
directions,  and  to  travel  the  one  is  to  give  up  and 
move  farther  and  farther  away  from  the  other.* 

*  "  It  generally  happens  that  the  majority  of  those  who  are 
governed  regard  the  manners  of  their  rulers  as  a  sort  of  model 
image,  and  make  themselves  like  them.  How,  then,  can  he 
appease  their  passions  who  is  swollen  witli  anger  himself  ? 
Who  among  the  multitude  would  straiglitway  desire  to  be 
moderate  if  he  saw  his  ruler  angry  ?  For  it  is  utterly  impossi- 
ble for  the  failings  of  priests  to  be  hidden  ;  but  the  very  least 
become  immediately  manifest. 

"  An  athlete,  so  long  as  he  remains  at  home  and  contends  with 
nobody,  may  conceal  it,  evju  though  he  is  very  weak  ;  but 
when  he  strips  for  the  conflict  he  is  easily  found  out.  And 
some  men,  who  live  a  private  and  inactive  life,  have  their  se- 
clusion as  a  veil  over  their  faults  ;  but  when  they  come  into 
the  arena  they  are  forced  to  strip  off  solitude  as  a  garment, 
and  to  show  their  naked  souls  to  all  men  by  means  of  their  out- 
ward movements.  As,  therefore,  their  right  deeds  have  profited 
many  by  provoking  them  to  equal  zeal,  so  have  their  short- 
comings made  men  more  indifferent  to  the  practice  of  virtue, 
and  rendered  them  sluggish  in  their  endeavors  after  what  is  ex- 
cellent. The  faults  of  ordinary  men,  which  are  as  though 
committed  in  the  dark,  ruin  only  those  who  perpetrate  them  ; 


Clergy  ana  People.  1 7 

But  there  is  another  consideration  involved. 
The  clergyman  is  the  layman  ^lus  all  that  is  given 
and  demanded  in  the  loftiest  and  holiest  calling 
possible  to  man — the  priesthood  of  Christ  ;  just  as 
the  magistrate  is  the  citizen  flus  all  that  makes  the 
magistrate,  or  the  military  commander  the  common 
soldier  2^^'^'^^  the  responsibilities  of  his  position. 
The  minister  cannot,  at  will,  put  on  his  office  and 
put  it  off  according  to  his  surroundings.  His  char- 
acter, like  his  office,   is  indelible  and  continuous, 

but  the  vices  of  a  man  "who  is  conspicuous  inflict  a  common 
injury  upon  all.  And  apart  from  these  things,  the  faults  of 
the  obscure,  even  if  they  come  into  notice,  are  punished  with  no 
remarkable  punishment  ;  but  those  who  are  seated  on  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  honor  are,  in  the  first  place,  manifest  unto 
all  men,  and  in  the  next  place,  if  they  fail  in  the  smallest  mat- 
ters, that  which  is  small  seems  great  toothers  ;  for  all  men  esti- 
mate an  offence,  not  by  the  measure  of  the  action,  but  by  the 
dignity  of  him  who  sins. 

"  So  long  as  the  life  of  the  priest  is  well  ordered  in  everyway, 
it  is  invulnerable  ;  but  if  he  overlooks  ever  so  little,  as  easily 
happens,  since  he  is  but  a  man,  he  derives  no  advantage  from 
the  rest  of  his  good  deeds,  for  that  little  fault  overshadows  all 
besides.  All  men  will  judge  the  priest,  not  as  one  arrayed  in 
flesh  and  inheriting  human  nature,  but  as  an  angel,  and  one 
delivered  from  remaining  infirmity."  * 

*  Chrysostom  on  "  The  Priesthood,"  p.  88-89. 


Condones  ad  Clerum. 


and  that  character,  that  office,  is  essentially  spir- 
itual ;  and  because  it  is  spiritual  it  wields  the  pow- 
ers of  the  world  to  come,  or  rather  the  powers  of 
the  kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world.  It  acts 
for  Christ,  it  acts  with  Christ,  it  acts  under  Christ. 
He,  by  the  Spirit,  gives  to  its  every  function  what- 
ever virtue  it  has  ;  wherever  it  is,  it  is  representa- 
tive of  that  which  is  above  itself  and  which  speaks 
through  itself.  And  so  office,  character,  conduct, 
habit,  influence,  are  in  every  priest  but  integral 
parts  of  his  priesthood,  constituting  an  organic 
whole  that  is  one  and  inseparable.  On  both 
grounds  there  are  many  things  which  a  layman  may 
do  or  leave  undone,  but  which  a  clergyman  may 
not  do,  or  leave  undone.  The  life  of  the  former  is 
conditioned  by  his  secular  occupation  as  well  as  by 
his  Christian  vocation  ;  the  life  of  the  latter  by  an 
office  which  dominates  all  else,  and  must  be  judged 
by  a  standard  peculiar  to  itself.  It  must  be  in  the 
world,  and  of  the  world,  yet  above  the  world. 

!No,  to  assume  as  our  rule  of  life  the  prevail- 
ing customs  and  standards  about  us,  or  to  be  content 
with  the  verdict  of  public  opinion  on  the  morale  of 
our  lives,  or  our  work,  is  a  degradation  of  the  ideal 


Clergy  and  People.  19 

'  of  our  holy  office.  If  it  be  true  that  we  have  the 
special  grace  of  God,  the  special  presence  of 
Christ,  the  special  commission  to  represent  the 
kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world,  it  is  also  true 
that  the  rightful  measure  of  our  self-devotion  and 
non-conformity  to  the  world  can  be  determined 
only  by  a  rule  of  priestly  conduct  wliich  will  appear, 
to  the  average  of  mankind,  as  fit  only  for  ascetics 
and  abstinents.  It  is  impossible  to  come  to  any 
other  conclusion,  whether  we  consult  the  language 
habitually  used  in  Holy  Scripture  on  the  subject, 
or  the  character  and  requirements  of  the  work  to 
which  we  have  been  set  apart.  Self-indulgent  and 
easy  hvers  the  clergy  cannot  be,  unless  they  mean  to 
cut  themselves  off  from  one  of  the  highest  sources 
of  their  influence.  How  shall  they  lift  up  others, 
if  themselves  be  not  first  lifted  up  ?  They  must 
live  as  pilgrims  and  strangers  here,  if  they  would 
teach  others  to  live  so.  What  matters  it  that  soci- 
ety— people  criticise  and  sneer  ?  "What  matters  it 
that  such  a  course  will  be  unpopular  ?  It  is  only 
what  we  have  to  look  for  that  the  world  should  dis- 
like most  those  who  protest  most  against  its  spirit. 
The  salt  has  already  gone  out  of  a  ministry  that  has, 


20  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

in  its  very  tone  and  attitude,  no  power  of  rebuke, 
no  voice  of  chiding  and  remonstrance. 

Again,  let  me  say  a  word  or  two  in  regard  to  our 
self-sacrifice  in  labors  for  Christ  and  for  souls  whom 
He  redeemed,  as  compared  with  the  self-sacrifice 
shown  by  men  devoted  to  secular  pursuits.  The 
comparison  is  not  a  pleasant  one  to  make,  and,  if 
pushed  too  far,  it  is  even  painful  in  what  it  reveals. 
In  every  profession,  in  every  calhng,  in  every  trade 
it  is  a  common  thing  to  find  men  of  talent,  earnest- 
ness, and  perseverance  who  allow  no  personal  com- 
fort or  convenience  to  stand  in  the  way  of  success. 
So  much  are  they  absorbed,  so  ardently  employed 
in  achieving  distinction,  wealth,  and  influence,  that 
ease  and  health  are  thrown  away  without  a  mo- 
ment's hesitation.  They  seem  not  to  reckon  as  of 
any  consequence  the  pleasures  of  society,  or  the 
quiet  and  privacy  of  their  homes.  Their  habits  of 
life,  their  arrangements  of  time  are  forced  into 
rigid  conformity  with  their  dominant  j)urpose. 
What  cares  the  physician  who  loves  his  vocation, 
and  is  bent  on  acquiring  a  professional  fame,  for 
festive  hours,  or  hours  of  repose,  when  his  patient 
summons  him  to  his  bedside  ?     Who  thinks  of  see- 


Clergy  and  People.  21 

ing  the  energetic  advocate,  resolved  on  winning  his 
way  to  reputation  and  influence,  at  social  gatherings, 
whiling  away  his  time  in  gossiping  talk  with  people 
of  fashion  and  jjleasure  ?  "Who  does  not  expect,  as 
a  thing  of  course,  that  the  soldier  will  turn  his  back 
on  every  call  of  the  world  for  the  higher  ones  of 
professional  duty  \  So  with  the  tradesman  and  me- 
chanic, who  mean  to  acquire  a  competence.  It  is 
taken  for  granted  that  they  will  be  at  their  work 
late  and  early,  shortening  the  hours  of  sleep,  and, 
if  need  be,  imposing  upon  themselves  habits  of  stem 
self-denial.  Can  the  same  be  said,  as  a  ruie,  of  the 
vocation  specially  commissioned  of  God  to  save  im- 
mortal souls  and  glorify  the  redeeming  Lord  ? 
Alas  !  how  comes  it  that  the  clergy  are  expected  to 
take  a  different  line,  to  be  less  intense,  less  absorbed, 
less  worn  by  the  friction  of  ever-pressing  cares  and 
obligations,  to  have  one  foot  only  in  the  sanctuary 
and  the  other  in  the  world  ?  How  does  it  happen 
that  they  are  regarded  as  about  the  only  class  of 
men  in  society  who  have  time  to  pay  and  return  the 
ordinary  visits  of  daily  courtesy,  to  be  frequent 
diners  out,  to  bestow  a  smiling  and  gracious  grav- 
ity on  festive  gatherings,  and  generally  to  afford  to 


22  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

their  neighbors  an  attractive  example  of  respectabil- 
ity and  domestic  comfort  ?  What  a  contrast  !  And 
let  us  be  manly  enough  to  face  it.  On  the  one  side, 
men  sacrificing  everything  to  wealth,  ambition,  the 
praise  of  their  fellows  ;  on  the  other,  the  ordained 
servants  of  Christ — at  least  too  many  of  them — 
yielding,  oh,  how  little  !  to  the  demands  of  a  calling 
which  ought  to  distance  all  others  in  denials  and 
hardships  and  self-abnegation.  Complain  not  of 
harsh  judgments,  wonder  not  at  the  decHning  power 
of  the  priesthood,  or  at  the  turning  away  of  the 
masses  from  our  altars,  or  at  anything  else  which 
reflects  upon  the  earnestness  of  the  ministry  or  in- 
flicts discredit  and  damage  upon  its  traditional  pres- 
tige. The  world  is  testing  us  by  a  standard  our- 
selves have  raised  ;  and  it  will  test  us  no  otherwise 
until  ourselves  break  away  from  that  standard.  A 
thousand  times  better  were  it  that  we  should  be 
jeered  at,  ridiculed,  denounced  as  enthusiasts,  dev- 
otees, ascetics,  than  that  our  mode  of  life,  our  way 
of  doing  the  Master's  work,  our  tone  of  character 
and  conversation,  should  puzzle  the  self -pleasing 
world  to  discover  any  radical  difference  between  us 
and  itself . 


Clergy  afid  People.  23 

As  to  the  second  topic  proposed  for  consideration, 
viz.,  the  best  means  for  awakening  in  the  faithful 
increased  interest  in  the  special  teachings  and  ser- 
vices of  the  Church  at  this  time,  that  must  be  han- 
dled at  another  time. 

On  the  third  and  last  topic  I  must  ask  your  atten- 
tion for  a  few  moments.  Nothing  can  be  more  im- 
portant than  the  relations  of  our  pastorate  to  indi- 
vidual souls.  It  is  clearly  the  mind  and  theory  of 
the  Church  that  these  relations  should  be  very  inti- 
mate. And  what  the  Church  teaches  on  this  sub- 
ject is  only  a  reflection  of  what  is  taught  and  re- 
quired in  Holy  Scripture.  Our  Lord,  as  the  Shep- 
herd of  the  sheep  redeemed  by  His  blood,  laiew  every 
one  of  the  flock.  He  indeed  took  upon  Him  our 
nature  as  a  whole.  He  died  for  the  race  as  a  whole. 
His  atonement  compassed  the  needs  of  humanity. 
And  yet  He  ministered  to  each  soul  as  though  it 
stood  alone.  His  sympathy  and  love  were  personal  as 
to  their  source,  and  personal  as  to  their  object.  He 
entered  into  the  experiences  common  to  all  ;  but  He 
also  made  room  in  His  heart  for  what  is  peculiar  in 
every  individual  experience.  If  He  spoke  to  men  in 
assemblies  and  in  bulk,  He  also  dealt  with  men  as 


24  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

individuals — no  two  of  whom  were  alike  in  their  sin? 
their  doubt,  their  sorrow,  their  weakness,  their  ne- 
cessity. So  with  apostles,  teachers,  pastors,  evan- 
gelists whom  He  commissioned.  St.  Paul,  for  ex- 
ample, ruled  over  and  disciplined  the  churches  un- 
der his  care  as  churches  ;  he  wrote  to  them  as 
churches.  But  in  his  relations  to  individual  be- 
lievers he  declared,  "  Who  is  weak,  and  1  am  not 
weak  ?  who  is  offended,  and  I  burn  not?"  So  it 
ought  to  be  with  us  ;  but  manifestly  so  it  is  not. 
The  Church  invites  her  members  not  only  to  as- 
semble in  the  sanctuary  for  joint  acts  of  worship,  not 
only  to  organize  into  fellowships  and  brotherhoods 
and  congregations  in  order  the  better  to  hear  God's 
Word  read  and  preached,  and  to  partake  of  the  Sac- 
rament and  profit  generally  by  all  duly  appointed 
means  of  grace,  but  she  invites  them  as  indimduals 
to  seek,  when  occasion  may  require,  godly  counsel 
from  their  ministers,  to  open  up  to  them  the  hurts 
and  wounds  and  griefs  which  shadow  their  faith 
and  hinder  their  joy.  How  seldom  the  invitation  is 
heeded  I  need  not  say.  The  claim  for  help  and 
guidance  which  the  invitation  implies  is  practically 
forgotten  by  the  people  ;  and  the  obligation  to  ren- 


Clergy  and  People.  25 

der  them  is  so  seldom  pressed  upon  tlie  clergy  tliat 
they,  in  turn,  have  come  to  regard  it  as  a  very  ex- 
traordinary emergency  which  should  induce  any 
parishioner  to  apply  to  them  for  this  purpose. 
When  the  clergy  are  so  approached  the  inference  is, 
at  once,  that  it  must  be  a  very  unusual  grief,  a 
strangely  besetting  sin,  an  overmastering  sense  of 
guilt  which  could  tempt  the  tossed  and  aching 
heart  to  rend  its  veil  of  privacy  and  lay  open  its  se- 
cret struggles  even  to  the  ordained  guide,  the  com- 
missioned helper  and  counsellor  of  souls.  What  a 
sad  proof  of  the  unfortunate  drift  in  these  times  ! 
What  a  revelation  of  the  unused  powers  of  our  pas- 
torate !  Nay,  what  a  testimony  to  the  barrenness 
and  inefficiency  of  our  office  on  this  whole  side  of  its 
work — this  habitual  remoteness  of  the  flock  from  the 
shepherd,  these  walls  of  separation  reared  by  mod- 
ern negligence  and  isolation  ;  the  priest  charged 
with  the  care  of  souls,  and  yet  the  reality  dwindled 
into  a  figure  of  speech,  a  tradition  of  the  past,  an 
empty  utterance  of  the  Ordinal  !  Why,  these  are 
facts  which  not  only  arraign,  but  impeach  our  ad- 
ministration of  the  trust  committed  to  us.  Disuse 
of  the  power  to  guide  has  been  punished  by  feeble- 


26  Condones  ad  Cleruvi. 

ness  and  vagueness  and  incompetency  when  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  power  is  demanded  ;  while  among  the 
people  the  need  of  this  power  has  been  so  long  dor- 
mant, so  long  stifled,  that  they  have  either  hecome 
unconscious  of  its  existence,  or  have  ceased  to  think 
it  of  any  moment. 

Such  has  been  our  practice,  or,  rather,  neglect  of 
practice,  such  our  training  for  the  holy  office  that 
the  average  minister  to-day  rather  dreads  than 
courts  the  exercise  of  this  function  of  individual 
guidance.  He  has  come  to  regard  his  preaching  as 
quite  sufficient  for  all  needs  ;  and,  when  through 
with  that,  he  is  through  with  his  duty  as  an  instruc- 
tor and  helper  of  souls.  He  may  be  strong  in  the 
region  of  generalities,  but  he  is  weak  when  confront- 
ed by  particulars.  He  is  clever  at  verbal  description 
of  moral  disease,  but  quite  thrown  off  his  balance  in 
the  presence  of  a  special  distemper.  Knife  and  cau- 
tery, blisters  and  poultices,  and  all  the  thousand  re» 
sources  of  a  spiritual  materia  medica  have  figured 
in  his  rhetoric,  but  he  has  neither  nerve  nor  skill  to 
handle  fliem  in  a  specific  case  of  real  trouble.  The 
true  and  complete  physician,  whether  of  soul  or 
body,  should  be  a  competent  lecturer  on  the  princi- 


Clergy  and  People.  27 

pies  involved  in  his  work  ;  bnt  lie  must  be  at  home, 
apt,  and  well  furnished  for  every  crisis,  at  the  bed- 
side of  the  sick.  No  theoretical  knowledge,  no  fac- 
ulty of  telling  what  he  knows,  can  excuse  him  for 
ignorant  bungling  when  his  finger  is  on  the  pulse  of 
his  fever-stricken  patient. 

As  for  the  causes  of  this  state  of  things,  the  in- 
quiry needed  to  compass  them  were  too  long  and 
devious  to  be  entered  upon  here.  There  is  the  ab- 
horrence of  the  Romish  confessional,  which,  in  guid- 
ing and  helping,  does  so  much  of  both,  and  in  such 
a  way  as  to  undermine  personal  responsibility. 
There  are  the  unhealthy  publicity  and  meddling, 
morbid  inquisitiveness  of  prayer-meeting  and  class- 
meeting  experiences,  which  tempt  some  people  to 
figure  in  the  role  of  glorified  angels,  and  others  in 
that  of  redeemed  and  sanctified  devils — and  all  to 
gratif}',  sometimes,  a  craving  for  excitement,  and  at 
others  a  passion  for  dramatic  incidents,  even  in  re- 
ligion. And  then  there  is  the  modern  notion,  so 
much  idolized  in  some  quarters,  that  every  soul  with 
the  Bible  in  its  hands  not  only  can,  when  necessary^ 
work  out  its  own  salvation,  but,  as  a  rule,  ought  to 
do  it  independently  of  means  which  God  would  not 
have   ordained   had   they  been   needless — indepen- 


28  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

dentlj  of  tlie  Cliurcli,  'wliicli  is  Christ's  own  body  ; 
independently  of  the  priesthood,  which  is  Christ's 
own  representative  in  the  disciphne  and  nurture  of 
souls.  But,  be-ides,  there  is  the  latent,  half -para- 
lyzing, widely -prevalent  doubt  as  to  whether  Chris- 
tianity is  what  it  seems  ;  a  doubt  which  poisons  the 
very  atmosphere  breathed  by  whole  masses  wnthin 
the  pale  of  religion  and  sends  its  canker  down  to 
the  roots  of  the  popular  faith, 

Howev^er  we  may  describe  or  estimate  the  causes, 
the  state  of  things  to  which  I  have  referred  cannot 
be  too  much  deplored.  Whether  the  fault  be  in  the 
people,  or  in  the  ministry,  or  in  the  unhapj^y  tem_ 
per  of  these  days,  or  in  all,  the  evil  should  be  taken 
in  hand  and  a  remedy  applied.  Let  not  the  clergy 
wait  for  the  people,  deeming  it  time  enough  to  take 
up  the  duty  in  earnest  when  they  shall  be  pressed 
to  do  so  ;  but  rather,  after  making  sure  of  the  mind 
of  Scripture  and  the  Church,  let  them  speak  plainly 
to  their  flocks,  reminding  them  of  their  right  and 
their  privilege,  and  of  the  sore  loss  they  suffer  by 
ignoring  them  ;  and  assuring  them  also  of  welcome 
and  symjiathy  and  of  such  careful,  loving,  conscien 
tious  treatment  as  will  bring  comfort  and  strength 
to  their  burdened  souls. 


II. 

THE   CUEE    OF    SOULS. 

Of  the  three  topics  discussed  in  the  previous  con- 
ference and  then  partially  treated  by  me,  I  shall  now 
take  up  only  the  last,  viz.,  "  The  proper  and  ef- 
ficient exercise  of  that  function  of  the  priestly  office 
which  not  only  entitles,  but  invites  every  member 
of  Chi'ist's  body  to  seek,  individually  and  privately, 
for  such  godly  counsel  and  help  as  he  may  require 
because  of  the  hurt  or  grief  of  his  soul,  or  be- 
cause of  his  pecuhar  and  besetting  sins,  or  because 
of  spiritual  dangers  and  trials  of  any  sort  with  which 
he  may  be  too  weak  and  inexperienced  to  deal." 
The  subject,  as  ^vill  be  noticed,  is  very  broadly 
stated,  and  purposely  so.  The  recent  attempts  to 
introduce  among  us  the  whole  penitential  system  of 
modem  Romanism,  of  which  habitual  auricular  con- 
fession is  the  prominent  feature,  have  made  it  diffi- 
cult to  treat  the  subject  at  all  without  arousing  sus- 
picion and  fear  in  many  minds.     As  it  is  here  put, 


30  Condones  ad  Clertim. 

tlie  subject  embraces  a  great  deal  botb  in  tbe  way  of 
needs  and  helps,  for  wliicli  even  a  thorough  and  in- 
quisitive confessional  does  not  j)rovide.  But  mucli 
as  the  Romish  method  of  handling  individual  souls 
may  be  dreaded,  let  it  be  remembered  that  no  one's 
dread  will  serionsly  hinder  its  work.  If  we  are  to 
check  its  advance,  if  we  are  to  overthrow  it  in  the 
end,  we  must  do  it  by  putting  a  better  method  in 
its  place.  The  evil  that  is  in  it  will  be  conquered 
only  by  the  good  that  we  plant  beside  it.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  opposite  method,  so  common  and  so 
much  rehed  upon  among  some  of  the  Christian  de- 
nominations. The  public  recital  of  private  and  per- 
sonal religious  experience  has  developed  dangers  and 
abuses  to  which  we  are  more  keenly  alive,  perhaps, 
than  are  their  immediate  observers.  And  yet,  how- 
ever repugnant  it  may  be  to  our  taste,  and  even  to 
our  convictions,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this 
style  of  confession  is  grounded  upon  a  too  literal 
rendering  of  the  apostolic  injunction.  ' '  Confess  your 
sins  one  to  another  ;"  just  as  the  Romish  is  ground- 
ed upon  a  too  hberal,  or  too  narrow,  interpretation 
of  our  Lord's  words  to  His  duly  commissioned  min- 
istry (St.  Matthew  16  :  19).     Both  methods  are  ex- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  31 

aggerations,  and  lieiice  corriiptions,  of  a  divine  direc- 
tion and  a  divine  promise.  But  as  with  the  abuses 
of  the  confessional,  so  with  tlie  abuses  of  tlie  oppo- 
site system,  we  are  to  correct  them,  not  by  denounc- 
ing thein,  but  by  setting  up  something  better  in 
tlieir  places.  Finding  so  much  to  condemn  in 
both  systems,  some  have  given  up  the  whole  matter 
in  a  spirit  of  despair,  as  though  there  were  no  third 
course  to  pursue,  no  possibility  of  giving  to  the  indi- 
vidual Christian  the  private  hel])  he  may  need,  or 
of  enabling  the  guide  of  souls  to  do  his  full  duty  in 
a  relation  of  so  much  delicacy  and  difficulty  with 
safety  to  all  the  interests  involved,  and  with  benefit 
to  the  members  of  the  flock  seeking  his  personal 
care. 

But  the  inaction,  the  indifference,  the  neglect  pro- 
duced by  such  a  view  are  worse,  far  worse,  than  the 
e\^ls  complained  of  in  either  of  the  0]3posing  systems. 
And  yet  just  this  is  the  ^dew  practically  to-day  of  a 
very  large  majority  of  our  clergy  and  people.  We  re- 
j  ect  the  confessional.  We  turn  away  almost  with  dis- 
gust from  the  coarse  publicity  and  the  often  cant- 
ing garrulity  of  experience  meetings.  The  one  is 
too  secret,  the  other  is  too  open  ;  the  one  puts  too 


Condones  ad  CUrttm. 


much,  power  over  the  conscience  in  the  hands  of  the 
priest,  the  other  leaves  no  power  at  all  in  his  hands  ; 
the  one  we  denounce  as  tjrannj,  the  other  we  de- 
scribe as  liberty  run  out  into  license  and  anarchy  ;  in 
the  one  the  individual  surrenders  himself  to 
another's  keeping,  in  the  other  the  individual  under- 
takes to  be  his  own  keeper. 

But  merely  finding  fault  witli  what  others  do  is 
not  the  whole  duty  of  those  who  pretend  to  maintain 
a  positive  faith  and  to  be  engaged  in  aggressive 
Christian  work.  It  was  a  profound  conviction  of 
the  inconsistency  and  weakness  of  our  position 
touching  this  whole' subject  that  induced  me  to  bring 
it  to  your  attention  at  this  time. 

Now,  it  is  my  belief  that,  as  in  polity,  doctrine, 
and  worship,  we  hold  a  very  definite  and  positive 
ground,  which  none,  except  those  who  do  it  ignorant- 
ly  or  wilfully,  can  confound  with  that  of  popery  or 
that  of  any  or  all  the  modern  sects  ;  so  in  this  mat- 
ter of  the  guidance  and  help  of  individual  souls  by 
the  ministers  of  Christ  there  is  abundant  room  for  a 
course  of  action  which,  while  avoiding  the  evils 
complained  of  in  both  the  systems  which  have  been 
noticed,  would  assure  to  the  faitlxfuJ  the  exercise  of 


The  C^cre  of  Souls.  33 

their  right  to  claim  from  their  pastors  a  more  de- 
tailed and  personal  guidance,  and  would  enable  the 
pastors,  on  their  side,  to  respond  to  this  claim  with 
benefit  to  themselves  and  to  their  flocks.  As  things 
are,  it  may  be  hard  to  mark  out  at  once  and  to  ma- 
ture in  all  respects  this  course  of  action.  Both 
clergy  and  people  need  special  and  perhaps  long  prep- 
aration for  it.  The  tone  in  both  is  slack  even  to 
feebleness,  if  it  be  not  loose  even  to  demorahzation. 
The  people  will  be  suspicious  of  any  assumption  of 
authority  by  the  clergy  ;  and  yet  the  clergy  can  do 
little  in  the  way  of  reform  in  this  direction  unless 
the  people  will  see  again,  as  in  times  gone  by,  more 
authority  in  the  priestly  office  than  the  temper  of 
these  times  is  wilhng  to  concede  to  it.  And  then, 
it  may  be  said  that  if  we  are  going  into  cases  of 
conscience  with  any  sort  of  system  ;  if  we  are  to  in- 
vite our  people  to  bring  before  us  privately  all  their 
difficulties  and  trials,  covering  not  only  their  re- 
ligion, but  their  lives  as  affected  by  their  religion  ; 
if  every  priest  is  to  be  not  only  a  consolator  rrKBren- 
tium,  but  also  a  ductor  dubitantiwm,  and  a  con- 
fessor penitentiuTn,  let  us  first  be  prepared  for  such 
dehcate  and  serious  functions.     We  need  rules  to 


34  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

guide  us  in  the  performance  of  sucli  functions. 
There  has  been  a  shrinkage  on  this  side  of  our  pas- 
torate, and  before  we  enter  upon  such  work  we 
must  be  trained  and  fitted  to  do  it.  We  shall  have 
thrust  upon  us  the  tasks  and  duties  of  casuists. 
But  where  is  our  casuistry  ?  Neither  in  the  recent 
education  of  the  clergy,  nor  in  the  later  literature  of 
the  Church,  do  we  find  much  to  inspire  a  taste  for, 
or  to  furnish  any  practical  guidance  in,  such  duty. 
I  see  the  hindrance,  and  do  not  underrate  it. 

But  let  us  remember  in  this  case  what  is  so  true  in 
many  others,  that  we  shall  never  know  what  we 
want,  nor  how  to  meet  our  want,  nor  the  resources 
at  hand  to  enable  us  to  meet  it,  until  we  seriously 
and  honestly  take  the  work  in  hand.  The  very  do- 
ing of  the  duty,  or  the  attempt  to  do  it,  in  sjDite  of 
our  inexperience  and  imperfect  knowledge,  will 
throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  now  hidden  ways  and 
means  of  success.  We  shall  then  find  that  God's 
Word,  when  read  by  an  open-eyed,  sensitive,  and 
inquisitive  conscience,  has  in  it  more  casuistry  (in  a 
good  sense)  than  we  have  been  wont  to  think.  In- 
deed, we  shall  be  surprised  to  see  how  much  in  de- 
tail, how  deeply,  widely,  searchingly,  exhaustively 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  35 

it  deals  witli  the  ins  and  outs  of  human  nature,  with 
the  hghts  and  shadows,  the  fluctuating  currents,  tlie 
mysterious  evokitions,  the  spasms  and  the  stagna- 
tions, the  heats  and  chills,  the  infirmities  and  incon- 
sistencies, the  delusions  and  illusions,  the  fancies 
and  conceits,  the  sincerities  and  hypocrisies,  of  the 
leading  types  of  religious  experience  under  which 
nineteen  twentieths  of  the  Christians  of  every  gen- 
eration may  be  grouped.  Moses  and  the  prophets 
were  rather  incisive  casuists  when  they  dealt  with 
the  sins  of  the  Israelites.  David,  in  many  of  his 
Psalms,  evinced  a  singular  aptness  and  versatility  in 
the  same  way.  Our  Lord  himself  was,  as  we  might 
expect,  the  chief  and  sovereign  casuist,  for  none 
ever  spake  as  He  spake,  when  He  turned  upon  hu- 
man nature  the  unshadowed  light  of  God's  law,  and 
opened  upon  the  bewildered  sight  of  humanity  the 
awful  compass  of  its  spiritual  meaning.  In  His 
hands,  for  the  first  time,  things  touching  the  moral 
life  seemed  what  they  were,  and  were  what  they 
seemed.  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter,  St.  John,  St.  James, 
have  all  left  behind  them  the  evidences  of  an  in- 
spired familiarity  with  the  fife  of  God  in  the  human 
soul,  its  wants,  trials,  dangers  ;  and  also  with  the  char- 


36  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

acteristics  of  the  discipline  needed  to  meet  them. 
And  without  going  back  to  tlie  pages  of  what,  in  a 
general  way,  is  called  Patristic  literature,  without 
drawing  upon  the  Schoolmen  who  dealt  with  theol- 
ogy in  its  relations  with  metaphysics  not  more  acute- 
ly or  learnedly  than  with  practical  ethics,  we  shall 
find,  if  we  diligently  search  after  it  among  the  illus- 
trious group  of  our  own  Anglican  divines,  from  the 
sixteenth  century  down,  no  unworthy  disciples  of 
the  Apostles  and  early  Fathers,  both  in  the  science 
of  moral  theology  and  in  the  trained  practical  power 
of  apjDlying  its  rules  and  precepts  to  the  individual 
conscience.  No  age  of  the  Church  has  had  abler 
men  in  this  hue  of  thought  than  Bishops  Taylor  and 
Sanderson,  to  mention  no  others  among  a  hundred 
lesser  lights.  There  may  be  those  upon  whom  the 
minutely,  morbidly  inquisitorial  spirit  of  the  modern 
confessional  has  thrust  tasks  which  drive  them  for 
help  to  the  manuals  of  Dens  and  Liguori,  et  id  omne 
genus.  But  such  helps  are  not  needed  by  us,  nor 
will  they  be  until  some  great  corruption  shall  have 
darkened  our  gaze,  or  some  great  convulsion  shall 
have  loosened  our  hold  upon  the  faith  and  practice, 
the  life  and  discipline  of  the  ages  when  Apostles  gov- 


The  Ciire  of  Souls.  '}^'] 


erned  and  taught,  or  even  of  the  later  ones  when  the 
fathers  sat  in  undisputed  oecumenical  councils. 

Casuistry  is  related  to  ethics  as  an  art  to  a  science. 
The  princijjles  and  rules  of  ethics  being  established, 
casuistry  brings  them  to  bear  on  practical  life.  In 
a  general  way,  it  deals  with  all  duties  and  with  all 
things  that  hinder  the  performance  of  duties — i.e.^ 
with  states  of  mind,  moods  of  feeling,  weaknesses  or 
perversions  of  the  will,  evil  habits,  vices,  sins,  infir- 
mities of  temper,  torpors  of  conscience.  In  fact,  all 
moral  disturbances  of  the  soul,  all  disorders  and  de- 
pravities of  heart,  fall  within  its  range.  Though  as 
popularly  understood,  its  chief  task  is  with  mixed 
and  doubtful  questions  of  morals,  the  casuist,  like 
the  lawyer  and  the  physician,  is  engaged  in  apply- 
ing general  rales  to  particular  cases,  running  through 
all  the  varieties  which  are  forever  changing  the  face 
of  human  actions  and  experience.  Here  is  a  law 
and  there  is  an  action,  and  the  question  is  whether 
the  action  falls  under  the  law,  or  only  partly  under 
it,  and  partly  under  some  other  law.  Guilt,  in 
every  case,  is  determined  by  intention,  by  knowl- 
edge, by  the  degree  of  responsibility,  by  surround- 
ing circumstances.     All  these  must  be  examined  and 


38  Co7iciones  ad  Clerum. 

weighed  before  an  opinion  can  be  pronounced.  The 
same  action  very  often  is  not  equally  guilty  in  all 
persons  and  under  all  conditions.  "  Out  of  these 
cases^  i.e.,  oblique  deflections  from  the  universal  rule 
(which  is  also  the  grammarian's  sense  of  the  word 
case),  casuistry  arose."  It  grows  necessarily  out  of 
the  nature  of  moral  rules  and  out  of  the  ever-chang- 
ing character  of  human  conduct  ;  and  its  uses  be- 
come more  urgent  as  society  grows  more  complex 
and  allhfe  more  diversified.  As  has  been  well  said, 
' '  We  may  reject  the  name  ;  the  thing  we  cannot 
reject." 

For  fully  tliree  hundred  years,  numerous  and  val- 
uable as  have  been  the  contributions  to  moral  science 
by  various  Enghsh  divines  and  moralists,  it  is  note- 
worthy how  little  comparatively  they  have  done  for 
casuistry.  In  their  treatises  on  ethics,  they  have 
woven  in  a  good  deal  of  it  in  the  way  of  special  il- 
lustration, but  with  no  formal  attempt  to  develop  it 
as  a  separate  branch  of  research.  If  we  study  its 
history,  we  find  that  it  has  had  scarcely  any  system- 
atic treatment  outside  of  Italian,  Spanish,  and 
French  writers,  with,  perhaps,  here  and  there  an 
exception  among  the  Germans.    Somehow,  the  ethi- 


The  Ciire  of  Souls.  39 

cal  as  subordinated  to  the  ecclesiastical  mind  of 
Southern  Europe  has  taken  to  casuistry  as  by  a  sort 
of  instinct.  This  cannot  be  traced,  among  them,  to 
any  special  subtlety  or  refinement  of  the  moral  sense 
in  handling  subjects  germane  to  it,  but  is  due  more 
likely  to  the  exigencies  of  the  confessional,  an  instru- 
mentality more  habitually  used  and  more  thoroughly 
developed  among  these  races  than  among  those  of 
Northern  Europe.  This  fact  again,  if  traced  far 
enough,  will  be  fomid  to  be  largely  due  to  marked 
differences  of  moral  temperament  between  the  two 
sets  of  people. 

Among  the  works  on  the  subject  written  by  Eng- 
lishmen, one  appeared  in  1698.*  It  is  a  collection 
of  tracts,  essays,  and  discourses  by  several  well- 
known  authors  of  the  time,  and  exhibits  great  learn- 
ing and  ability  in  the  line  of  investigation  which  it 
pursues.  But  it  is  confined  to  cases  of  conscience 
arising  among  Dissenters  in  regard  to  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England.  Still,  there  is  no- 
where to  be  found  more  acute  reasoning,  or  more 
exhaustive  and  subtle  analysis  of  the  functions  and 
obligations  of  conscience  when  at  work  on  some  of 
*  London  Cases, 


40  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

tlie  most  tangled  and  difficult  problems  of  religious 
and  moral  duty. 

Clearly,  casuistry  fell  into  disrepute  during  and 
immediately  after  the  Reformation,  and  there  it  had 
continued  until  the  recent  revival  of  it  in  England 
by  the  advocates  of  regular  and  habitual  confession. 
This  revival  has  been  formally  signalized  by  the 
publication  in  English  of  the  Abbe  Gaume's  "  Man- 
ual for  Confessors,"  edited  by  Dr.  Pusey  and  pref- 
aced by  him  with  an  elaborate  defence  of  the  con- 
fessional in  the  Church  of  England.* 

]S"o  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  modern  cas- 
uistiy  can  wonder  that  it  has  been  under  a  cloud,  or 
that  it  has  excited  a  profound  antipathy  throughout 
the  English-speaking  world.  It  has  been  cultivated 
with  almost  exclusive  reference  to  its  professional 
use  in  auricular  confession,  and  very  la"svfully  and 
properly  it  has  shared  in  the  horror  and  hatred  en- 
gendered by  the  known  abuses  of  the  Popish  con- 
fessional. Some  Komish  writers  have  wrought  at  it 
with  simphcity  of  purpose  and  with  an  honest  con- 
science ;  but  there  are  others  (and  some  of  them,  as 

*  Any  number  of  minor  tractates  and  manuals  have  ap- 
peared, ■which  it  is  needless  to  name. 


The  Ci(re  of  Souts.  41 


will  be  seen,  just  now  in  tlie  ascendant)  wlio,  from 
"  lubricity  of  morals  or  the  irritations  of  curiosity, 
have  pushed  their  investigations  into  unhallowed 
paths  of  speculation.  They  have  held  aloft  a  torch 
for  exploring  guilty  recesses  of  human  life  which 
it  is  far  better  for  us  all  to  leave  in  their  original  dark- 
ness." But  even  the  minute  anatomy  of  monstrous 
offences  in  themselves  confessedly  rare  and  anoma- 
lous, or  the  vivid  portraiture  of  extravagances  of 
passion  often  all  but  imaginary  and  unknown  as  pos- 
sibilities to  the  young  and  innocent,  or  dastardly  in- 
vasions of  the  hallowed  recesses  of  domestic  hfe — 
none,  nor  all  of  these  have  done  so  much  to  discredit 
the  casuist's  office  as  the  common  belief,  resting 
upon  too  many  facts  to  be  denied,  that  its  chief  aim 
and  tendency  have  been  to  invent  hair-splitting  pro- 
cesses by  which  doubts  might  be  cast  upon  the 
plainest  duties  of  hfe,  and  this,  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  sought  to  evade  them.  The  casuist  is 
regarded  as  a  sort  of  ' '  shyster, ' '  a  Tombs-lawyer,  in 
morals — given  to  special  pleading  and  confounding 
the  plain  distinctions  of  moral  conduct,  and  so  de- 
feating the  ends  of  truth  and  justice,  by  shielding 
the  offender  from  his  proper  deserts  or  plastering 


42  Condones  ad  Clertim. 

over  his  conscience  with  the  salve  of  a  false  absolu- 
tion.* 

But  however  we  may  arraign  casuistry  for  its 
offences  and  abuses,  it  remains,  and  must,  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  do  so,  a  necessary  part  of  the  training 
of  every  well -furnished  guide  of  souls.  It  has  its 
good  as  well  as  its  bad  uses.  It  is  the  practical  and 
trained  application  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Chrisiian  morality  to  the  affairs  of  life.  The  indi- 
vidual conscience,  so  long  as  it  is  exposed  1o  doubt 
as  10  the  quality  of  human  actions,  or  as  to  the  vary- 
ing degrees  of  obligation  amid  the  ever-shifting  cir- 
cumstances of  life,  must  be  tutored  and  guided  ; 
and  clearly  those  who  are  ordained  to  the  sacred 
function  of  tutoring  and  guiding  it,  ought  to  under- 
stand what  they  have  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  The 
utter  abandonment  of  it  by  so  many,  as  a  distinct 
branch  of  clerical  study,  is  only  one  of  the  unhappy 
fruits  of  our  vague  and  loose  methods  of  dealing 
with  individual  souls.  Whatever  other  results  the 
revived  discussion  of  the  duty  and  mode  of  confes- 
sion may  lead  to,  it  will  not  be  without  at  least  one 
benefit,  if  it  shall  induce  the  clergy  to  take  up 
the  subject  in  a  serious  way,  and  as  one  which  they 
*  See  Appendix  A. 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  43 

cannot  neglect  without  damage  to  the  sacred 
interests  committed  to  their  keeping.  Except  as  it 
has  been  develojjed  by  such  writers  as  Liguori  and 
Escobar,  it  is  not  necessarily  the  product  or  the  ad- 
junct of  the  confessionaL  Its  uses  are  older  and 
wider  than  that  which  the  practical  system  of  Ro- 
manism has  run  out  into  so  many  dreadful  corrup- 
tions and  abuses. 

I  have  said  that  the  pastorate  can  reach  individual 
souls  and  individual  souls  can  reach  the  x^astorate, 
without  following  in  the  ways  of  Rome  or  of  an 
ultra-Protestant  emotionalism.  Some  of  you  may 
desire  to  see  the  course  marked  out  which  promises 
to  be  equidistant  from  both.  This  I  shall  undertake 
to  do,  though  of  necessity  so  briefly  as  not  to  enable 
me  to  remove  all  doubt,  or  to  meet  all  questions  on 
the  part  even  of  those  who  are  likely  to  sympathize 
with  the  tone  and  purpose  of  this  inquiry.  It  is 
but  an  outline  that  I  shall  attempt  to  trace.  To  fill 
it  up  with  due  gradation  of  color  and  proportion 
among  the  parts  would  require  a  volume.  I  shall 
suggest,  not  describe  ;  lay  down  certain  general 
propositions,  without    attempting    to    demonstrate 


44  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

tlieir  truth  ;  erect  landmarks  without  mapping  in- 
termediate spaces. 

In  such  a  cure  of  souls  as  I  am  now  supposing  to 
be  incumbent  on  us,  the  following  points  should  be 
kept  in  the  forefront  of  our  work,  so  that  the  people 
may  understand  its  conditions  and  limitations,  and, 
understanding  them,  may  not  be  led  to  expect  from 
the  clergy  a  sort  of  guidance  and  help  which  they 
could  not  give  without  transcending  their  authority 
as  ministers  of  this  Church. 

(1)  We  are  to  do  nothing  that  shall  lessen  in  any 
soul  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  to  God, 
whether  by  a  process  of  sapping  and  mining  from 
within,  or  by  a  demand  from  without  for  the  keys  of 
the  conscience.  That  responsibihty  is  the  central 
fact  in  our  moral  being  ;  and  it  must  be  protected 
and  upheld  at  all  hazards.  The  Gospel  magnifies 
it,  the  Church  develoj^s  it.  God  himself  respects 
it  as  pai't  of  the  foundation  on  which  the  works  of 
His  grace  and  providence  are  built  u]3,  and  also  as 
part  of  the  dignity  of  a  nature  made  in  His  own 
image.  Let,  then,  the  soul  that  seeks  helj)  under- 
stand that  the  help  given  wdll  not  jput  another  will 


The  Czire^  of  So2tls.  45 

in  the  place  of  its  own  will,  or  another  conscience  in 
the  place  of  its  own  conscience. 

(2)  It  should  be  clearly  and  strongly  tanght  that 
the  ideal  spiritual  life,  the  perfected  life  in  Christ 
Jesus,  is  the  life  that  draws  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
great  end  which  the  Gospel  always  aims  at,  viz. ,  the 
gradual  substitution  in  every  soul  of  a  character  for 
an  outward  law,  the  steady  progress  toward  a  habit 
of  loving  obedience  to  God's  will,  which  supersedes 
external  rules  and  statutes.  For,  as  the  Apostle  says, 
the  law  is  dead  to  him  that  keeps  it.  But  the  more 
an  internal  character  takes  the  place  of  external 
guidance,  the  less  need  will  there  be  of  outward 
helps  of  all  kinds.  Christ  formed  in  us  brings 
everything  we  need.  The  greater  includes  the  less. 
His  is  the  only  will.  His  is  the  only  conscience. 
His  is  the  only  personality  in  which  ours  can  be 
merged  and  yet  not  lost,  can  be  brought  into  sub- 
jection without  hindrance  or  hurt  to  their  liberty  of 
choice  and  responsibility  of  action.  This  is  whole- 
some doctrine  for  a  certain  class  of  minds  who,  be- 
cause of  disgust  at  their  own  weakness  and  vacilla- 
tion, are  always  on  the  lookout  for  some  strong  hand 
to  take  them  into  its  keeping — sentimental  souls, 


46  Condones  ad  Clertim. 


that  crave  the  easy  delights  of  noble  dreams  and 
aspirations,  that  dread  any  grapple  of  the  will  with 
evil,  any  pains  of  conscience  engendered  by  remorse 
for  sin  ;  intellectual  souls,  fond  of  the  cultus  of 
Christianity,  passionate  admirers  of  the  unities  and 
catholicities  so  often  treated  in  prose  and  song,  yet 
without  nerve  or  backbone  in  any  real  conflict  with 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  Reh'giously, 
spiritually  characterless,  they  instinctively  turn  to 
minute  rules,  to  special  directions,  to  artificial  stays 
and  projos  to  brace  their  ravelling  resolves  and  flab- 
by, sinewless  purposes.  Sooner  or  later,  if  their 
steps  tend  that  way,  they  will  hail  w^itli  joy  the 
sharp-cut  management  of  the  confessional,  and  ac- 
cept it  as  the  shield  of  their  faith  and  the  helmet  of 
their  salvation. 

(3)  It  is  of  moment  that  we  prove  to  those  who 
come  to  ns  for  special  counsel  that  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  of  real  difficulty,  the  ordinary  means  of  grace 
provided  in  the  Church  are  sufficient  ;  that  it  is 
often  rather  a  craving  for  some  new  expedient,  a  de- 
sire of  change  and  novelty,  than  a  real  want  that 
puts  sonls  npon  the  search  for  special  remedies  and 
extraordinary  means.     Here,  for  example,  is  a  per- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  47 

son  who  asks  to  be  heard  in  private  confession,  and 
longs  to  work  out  gome  satisfaction  for  his  supposed 
aggravated  guilt  by  a  painful  penance.  If  the  case 
be  carefully  inquired  into,  it  will  not  unlikely  be 
discovered  that  the  person  so  applying  for  special 
care  has  not  first  in  his  own  soul  bewailed  his  sin- 
fulness, nor  confessed  himself  to  Almignty  God, 
with  full  purpose  of  amendment  of  life  ;  has  not,  in 
fact,  done  any  one  of  many  things  within  the  reach 
of  every  conscience  troubled  with  the  sense  of  sin. 
No  soul  should  be  encouraged  to  rely  upon  the  ex- 
traoTdinary  while  the  ordinary  has  not  been  ex- 
hausted, to  come  to  the  minister  to  quiet  his  con- 
science, when  he  has  not  done  what  he  could,  pre- 
viously, to  do  so  himself,  or  to  open  his  grief  when 
he  has  only  vague  notions  of  what  his  grief  is,  and 
leans  upon  the  priest  to  tell  him  what  it  is.  So, 
with  over-scrupulous  persons,  and  persons  given  to 
doubt  and  despondency  on  very  slight  grounds  ;  if 
treated  too  seriously,  made  too  much  of,  allowed  to 
tell  their  special  trouble  too  often,  they  soon  sink 
into  the  tone  of  feeling  exhibited  by  beggars  who 
parade  their  nakedness  or  deformity  to  excite  the 
charity  of  the  passer-by. 


48  Condones  ad  C/cricm. 

(4)  Let  us  leave  notliing  unsaid  or  undone  that 
will  serve  to  show  those  who  ask  our  special  help  in 
dealing  with  their  sins,  what  does,  and  what  does  not 
belong  to  a  healthj  mode  of  self-examination. 
There  is  a  morbid  kind  of  introspection  which  leads 
to  hrooding  over  sin  apart  from  any  honest  efforts  to 
overcome  it,  or  to  exaggerating  sin  for  tlie  sake  of 
magnifying  the  difficulty  of  repentance,  or  to  excus- 
ing sin,  in  order  to  prove  that  no  repentance  is  ne- 
cessary. Before  undertaking  to  help  or  comfort 
such  a  conscience,  it  must  be  taught  |)lainly  what, 
with  an  average  of  Christian  knowledge,  it  ought  to 
know  already,  viz. ,  the  nature  of  sin  as  defined  by 
God's  Word,  its  hold  upon  the  heart  and  life,  the 
ordinary  forms  it  takes  on  in  every  soul,  its  degrees 
of  guilt,  the  penalties  which  await  it  ;  next  the  sor- 
row for  it  which  worketh  godliness,  and  the  sorrow 
for  if  ^Yhich  needeth  to  be  repented  of  ;  and  finally, 
the  forsaking  of  the  evil,  without  which  all  repent- 
ance is  a  hollow  thing,  not  worth  the  breath  it  takes 
to  utter  it.  At  every  stage  of  the  process  self-ques- 
tioning, self-examination  is  indispensable  ;  and  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  wise  guide  of  souls  to  push  up  stead- 
ily and  boldly  into  the  eye  of  the  memory  and  the 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  49 

conscience  tiie  particulars  into  wliicli  every  one  of 
the  Ten  Commandments  may  be  resolved,  so  tliat 
by  these  the  particulars  of  the  soul's  transgressions 
may  be  ferreted  out  and  exposed  to  condemnation. 
And  this  is  a  task  which  earnest  persons,  in  most 
instances,  when  told  how  to  do  it,  will    do  better 
for  themselves  than  any  one  else  can  do  it  for  them. 
(5)  We  must  carefully  distinguish  between  cases 
of  conscience  which  require  the  casuist's  skill  to 
deal  with  them,  and  cases  which  can  be  met  by  a 
proper  understanding  and  use  of  the  di\ane  law  as 
developed  in  its  spirit  by  the  teaching  of  Christ. 
The  former  are  not  so  numerous  as  is  often  sup- 
posed.    Some  inquirers  for  light,  who  profess  to  be 
very  eager  for  a  solution  of  their  difficulties,  are 
curiously  fond  of  either  subtlety  or  vagueness  of 
statement.      There    are    few   cases   of    conscience 
which,  when  the  enveloping  mist  of  hazy  language 
is  scattered,  are  not  reducible  to  simple  issues  of  op- 
posing motives  and  of  apparently  contradictory  obli- 
gations.     Somehow,  there  are  many  anxious  and 
troubled  souls  that  do  not  take  readily  to  the  easiest, 
most  obvious  way  out  of  their  difficulty.     They  like 
to  be  reasoned  with,  to  be  examined,  to  be  ana- 


50  Condones  ad  Clerui7i, 

lyzed,  sharply  questioned,  handled  as  though  their 
special  grief  was  of  the  heaviest.  They  are  scarcely 
content  without  they  feel  the  trained  casuist's  knife 
dividing  the  joints  from  the  marrow.  One  plainly- 
spoken,  thoroughly-applied  law  of  morals,  or  truth 
of  the  Gospel  may  be  enough  to  meet  their  case  ; 
but,  like  the  leprous  Syrian,  who,  when  told  to 
wash  liimself  seven  times  in  the  river  Jordan  and 
be  clean,  was  indignant  at  the  prophet  for  pre- 
scribing such  simple  treatment,  so  these  persons  will 
have  no  trust  in  you  as  a  guide  unless  you  exhaust 
upon  them  the  fine-spun  subtleties  of  a  well-fur- 
nished confessional. 

(6)  But  there  is  one  subject  in  particular  which 
should  be  fully  and  exphcitly  treated  in  all  our  in- 
structions, both  public  and  private.  Once  properly 
understood  by  the  faithful,  it  saves  them  much 
needless  doubt  and  misgiving,  and  their  guides 
much  time  and  trouble.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
Word  of  God,  nothing  in  the  Church's  doctrinal, 
liturgical,  or  practical  system  that  appears  more 
plain  and  simple,  when  duly  examined,  than  the 
matter  of  forgiveness  of  sin.  And  yet  there  is 
nothing,  in  fact,  in  either  or  all,  about  which  there 


The  CzLve  of  Souls.  51 

are  so  many  theories,  so  many  schools  of  thought 
and  practice,  and,  generally,  so  much  vagueness 
and  uncertainty  among  the  people.  I^o  suitable 
occasion  should  be  neglected  foi*  clear  and  definite 
teaching  (1)  as  to  the  terms  and  conditions  of  for- 
giveness, so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  transgressor  ; 
(2)  as  to  the  ground  and  meritorious  cause  of  for- 
giveness ;  (3)  as  to  the  pledges  and  assurances  of 
forgiveness — how  it  is  conveyed  and  certified  ;  how 
far,  especially  in  the  matter  of  assurance,  the  for- 
given penitent  may  accept  the  witness  of  his  own 
feelings,  and  tyiay  count  upon  the  rapture  of  par- 
don ;  and  how  far,  by  divine  arrangement,  he  must 
rely  not  only  upon  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
witnessing  with  his  spirit  internally,  subjectively, 
but  also  and  eminently  witnessing  through  the  one 
baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  subsequently,  at 
stated  times,  all  through  the  Christian  life,  through 
the  Holy  Sacrament  of  Christ's  body  and  blood, 
which,  besides  being  eucharistic,  sacrificial,  com- 
memorative, a  token  of  unity  in  Christ  and  the 
Church,  a  bond  of  fellowship  and  communion  be- 
tween all  believers,  is  also  pre-eminently  th#  Sacra- 
ment of  forgiveness.     In  this  connection  we  must 


52  Conciojies  ad  Cleruin. 

not  shrink  from  liandling  fully  and  decidedly  the 
whole  subject  of  Confession  and  Absolution,  words 
which  some  cannot  even  hear  without  nervous  dread 
and  apprehension,  and  yet  words  the  true  force 
and  meaning  of  which  the  theological  and  moral 
drift  of  these  times  will  oblige  us  to  study  with  far 
more  care  than  many  have  yet  bestowed  upon  them.  * 

Thus  far  I  have  confined  myself  to  directions 
and  limitations  to  be  brought  clearly  before  the 
faithful  who  desire  special  pastoral  help.  But  now 
I  turn  to  those  which  relate  immediately  to  the 
priest  himself,  and  which  he  must  obey  if  he  hopes 
to  do  his  duty  to  edification. 

(1)  He  must  have  clear  notions  as  to  the  nature 
and  range  of  his  authority.  There  are  two  kinds  of 
authority,  the  disregard  of  cither  of  which  will  im- 
pair his  influence  and  hinder  his  work.  There  is 
moral  authority,  the  essence  of  which  is  love,  and 
the  outward  form  of  which  is  character  shaped  by 
love.  This  is  the  highest  sort  of  power  which  one 
soul  can  wield  over  another.  Stubborn  wills  and 
alienated  hearts  and  soiled  consciences  bow  down  to 
this  \\4ien  they  would  do  so  to  nothing  else.  But 
besides,  there  is  the  authority  of  a  Divine  Commis- 
*  Sec  Appendix  B. 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  53 

« 

sion,  of  a  Sacred  Office,  in  virtue  of  wliich  the  priest 
is  required  to  exhort  the  people  ' '  to  obey  them  which 
have  the  rule  over  them."  The  two  authorities, 
blended  together  so  that  we  cannot  precisely  dis- 
cern where  the  one  begins  and  the  other  ends, 
make  the  j)erfect  guide  of  souls.  Some  are  indif- 
ferent to  the  authority  of  office,  but  none  will  be 
indifferent  to  the  authority  arising  from  moral  ele- 
vation, loving  sympathy,  and  an  evident  desire  to 
lighten  the  burdens  of  the  weary  and  heavy  laden. 
Where  the  former  will  not  serve  us,  the  latter  must, 
be  our  resource.  Christ  proved  His  love  to  men 
before  He  undertook  to  guide  and  govern  them. 
His  rulership  over  humanity  is  supreme,  because  it 
is  bathed  in  the  blood  of  His  cross.  No  one  can 
challenge  it,  because  no  one  can  challenge  the  ser- 
vice and  sacrifice  out  of  which  it  grew.  The  high- 
est influence,  the  noblest  authority  of  the  ministry, 
can  be  reached  only  on  the  same  conditions.  The 
true  shepherd  must  in  some  way  give  his  life  for 
the  sheep,  if  their  hfe  is  to  be  put  into  his  keeping. 
(2)  He  who  would  have  the  cure  of  souls  in  any 
worthy  sense  must  familiarize  himself  not  only  with 
theology  as  the  science  of  revealed  religion,  but 


54  Co7icio7tcs  ad  Clerum. 


"witli  Christian  etliics — the  science  of  duty,  whose 
great  aim  is  to  form  individual  character  after  the 
pattern  character  of  Christ.  On  one  side  it  is  the 
science  of  God's  moral  law  ;  on  the  other  it  is  the 
science  of  tlie  human  will,  the  conscience,  the 
moral  affections,  the  propensities  and  appetites  of 
the  flesh. 

Omitting  much  that  might  be  said  under  this 
head,  I  leave  it  with  one  general  direction,  which  I 
deem  of  great  moment.  In  questions  of  conscience, 
as  in  wider  ones,  affecting  the  spiritual  life,  some 
seem  to  think  that  their  first  duty  is  to  break  down 
and  set  aside,  as  of  no  account,  the  suggestions  and 
motives  of  the  natural  conscience,  the  moral  reason. 
The  Gospel,  it  is  said,  has  nothing  to  do  with  con- 
victions of  duty  or  estimates  of  human  action  ema- 
nating from  so  clouded  and  imperfect  a  source. 
The  old  man  is  to  be  jjut  away  that  the  new  crea- 
ture may  take  his  place.  He  is  simply  and  alto- 
gether ruin  and.  rubbish,  and  as  such  must  be  cast 
out  before  the  Holy  Ghost  can  begin  the  masonry 
of  the  new  temple.  Now,  this  is  not  the  less  an 
exaggeration  and  a  liindrance  because  it  arises  from 
a  "well-meant  effort  to  assert  the  radical  and  absolute 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  55 

sway  of  God's  trutli.  Et  is  an  error  at  the  very- 
point  where  grace  impinges  on  nature,  where  Christ 
touches  the  will  and  conscience.  If  we  act  upon  it 
in  our  dealing  with  souls  inquiring  the  way  to  the 
Cross,  we  are  put  at  a  serious  disadvantage.  We 
destroy  the  eye  whose  blindness  we  attempt  to  heal. 
"We  cut  up  by  the  roots  the  tree  whose  branches  are 
to  bear  the  grafts  from  the  tree  of  life.  Let  us  set- 
tle it  clearly  and  once  for  all  that  Christianity 
does  not  claim  to  create  morality,  as  though  there 
had  been  none  but  for  its  advent,  and  would  be 
none  but  for  its  presence.  On  the  contrary,  it 
cheerfully  accepts  what  it  finds  and  makes  the  most 
of  it.  It  does  not  oppose  natural  morahty,  it  does 
not  accuse  it  of  absolute  inefficacy,  it  does  not 
outlaw  the  motives  drawn  from  conscience  and  the 
nature  of  things.  Its  great  and  peculiar  office  is  to 
lead  forth  the  conscience  into  a  stronger  and  all-em- 
bracing hght,  and  to  energize  the  morality  that 
springs  from  it  with  an  irresistible  motive  power, 
whose  source  is  the  Word,  the  Sj)irit,  the  Example 
of  Christ.  Of  this  power  the  world  knew  nothing 
until  His  coming.  The  setting  forth  of  this  power 
and  of  its  uses  and  modes  of  operation  is  the  dis- 


56  Concio7ies  ad  Clcrum, 


tinctive  work  of  Christian  etliics  ;  and  the  applica- 
tion of  it,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to 
the  indiv^idiial  conscience  is  an  essential  part  of  our 
work  in  the  cure  of  souls.  To  perform  this  part 
well  requires  a  grasp  of  the  soul's  want  and  of 
Christ's  work,  which  too  few  of  us  possess. 

(3)  The  kind  of  cure  of  souls  about  which  I  am 
speaking  demands  a  proxtical  knowledge  (to  be 
gained  only  by  the  study  of  our  own  liearts  and 
lives,  as  well  as  of  the  hearts  and  lives  of  others)  of 
the  various  pliases  of  rehgious  experience  as  j)ro- 
duced  either  by  various  temperaments,  or  by  va- 
rious moods  of  any  one  temperament.  There  are 
the  emotional  and  the  unemotional,  the  quick  and 
the  slow,  the  fervid  and  the  cold,  the  hopeful  and 
the  despondent,  the  reticent  and  tlie  demonstrative, 
and  each  very  largely  governs  the  Christian's  inner 
life.  And  then  there  are  the  shifting  moods  pass- 
ing over  each  one  of  these  types  of  character,  of 
which  due  account  must  be  taken  if  we  are  to  touch 
their  ills  and  aches  and  lapses  with  a  discriminating 
hand.  All  Christians  are  not  Christians  after  the 
same  manner.  Very  often  one  element,  moral,  or 
emotional,    or  doctrinal,   predominates    and   some 


The  Ctire  of  Sotils.  57 

other  suffers.  There  is  no  hfe  without  its  weak 
side,  no  armor  witliout  its  loose  joint,  its  broken 
link.  If  we  are  to  give  the  needed  help,  we  must 
know  where  the  weakness  is  ;  if  we  are  to  aid  in 
restoring  a  disturbed  equilibrium,  we  must  get  at 
the  force  which  has  disturbed  it. 

(4)  They  who  will  seek  counsel  and  direction  will 
do  so  ordinarily  on  these  five  grounds  : 

I.  Because  of  their  besetting  special  sins  and  the 
temptations  which  draw  them  into  these  sins. 

II.  Because  of  distressing  fluctuations  of  feeling 
arising  from  loss  of  poise  and  balance  in  their  faith 
— these  in  turn  arising  from  exaggeration  or  defect 
in  one  or  more  articles  of  the  truth. 

III.  Because  of  ignorance  or  misconception  affect- 
ing some  fundamental  principle  of  faith  or  morality. 

IV.  Because  of  sorrow  and  suffering,  whether 
springing  from  their  own  conduct  or  from  the  visit- 
ation of  God. 

V.  Because  of  doubts,  doctrinal  or  ethical. 

The  foregoing  is  by  no  means  an  exhaustive  cat- 
alogue of  the  grounds  on  which  souls  will  come  to 
the  priest  of  God  for  counsel  and  help  ;    but  it  is 


58  Conciones  ad  Clerum. 

sufficiently  complete  for  my  present  purpose.     Let 
me  take  them  up  in  the  order  named. 

I.  He  who  is  charged  with  the  cure  of  souls  must 
know  the  sinfulness  of  sin  not  only  as  a  general 
proposition,  but  the  comparative  guilt  of  particular 
kinds  of  sin  and  the  peculiar  guilt  of  this  or  that  in- 
dividual sin.  It  is  one  thing  to  know  sin  as  it  is 
treated  in  the  books,  as  the  theme  of  metai^hysical 
or  ethical  inquiry,  or  as  the  material  which  enters 
largely  into  the  construction  of  theological  systems, 
and  quite  another  thing  to  know  it  in  the  bums  and 
bruises  it  inflicts  on  the  soul.  He  must,  therefore, 
acquire  the  faculty  of  handling  it  in  its  concrete 
shapes,  as  it  issues,  instinct  with  the  life  of  wicked 
ness,  fresh  from  hving  wills  and  living  hearts.  To 
this  end  he  must  study  it  as  God's  law-expounders 
— prophets  and  apostles — have  dealt  with  it.  They 
do  not  so  much  denounce  rebellion  as  rebels  ; 
not  so  much  sin  as  sinners  ;  not  so  much  evil 
in  general  as  evil-doers  in  particular.  And  coming 
forth  from  God's  Word,  he  must  hft  the  veil 
from  the  motives  of  men,  and  plant  himself  at  the 
very  centre  of  the  struggle  between  the  law  and  the 
law-breaker,  between  the  individual  will  and  the 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  59 


temptations  whicli  assail  it.  Thus  only  can  he  ap- 
preciate tlie  distinction  between  ordinary  and  special 
besetting  sins  ;  between  sins  of  infirmity  and  sins  of 
presumption  ;  between  sins  of  the  flesh  and  sins 
of  the  intellect  and  the  will ;  between  the  sin  of  the 
hardened  reprobate  and  the  sin  of  the  tender  con- 
science only  for  the  moment  gone  astray.  Until 
this  specific,  concrete,  practical,  knowledge  has  been 
attained,  it  will  be  only  as  a  neophyte  and  a  bungler 
that  he  will  be  able  to  prescribe  disciphnary  reme- 
dies for  the  penitent. 

There  is  no  casuistry  so  subtle,  so  ingenious,  so 
fertile  of  expedients,  so  unscrupulous  about  means, 
as  that  wliicli  the  Devil  supplies  to  the  sinner  to  ena- 
ble him  to  excuse  himseK  for  the  guilt,  or  to  extri- 
cate himself  from  the  consequences  of  vicious  or 
ungodly  living.  Truth,  honesty,  purity,  love,  holi- 
ness, are  poor  casuists.  They  move  straight  on  to 
their  ends.  They  are  children  of  the  light  and 
dwell  in  the  light  ;  and  souls  under  their  sway  fall 
spontaneously  into  their  movement  and  aims.  It  is 
not  of  the  private  Christian,  but  of  the  official  one, 
the  ordained  and  trained  physician  of  souls,  that  I 
am  speaking.     He  rhust  be  skilled  in  noting  and 


6o  Condones  ad  Clertim. 

comparing  symptoms,  in  timing  pulse-beats,  in  dis- 
cerning false  curvatures,  in  detecting  incipient  de- 
cay and  gangrene.  His  business  is  to  cu7'e  souls,  as 
well  as,  in  the  exercise  of  another  function,  to  feed 
them.  What  wonder  that  there  is  so  little  curing 
when  so  few  put  forth  any  serious  effort  to  fit  them- 
selves for  such  a  task  ! 

I  have  spoken  of  the  need  of  understanding  the 
comparative  guilt  of  certain  classes  of  sins.  Let 
me  give  an  illustration  of  what  I  mean.  There  are 
the  sins  of  the  animal  man  and  the  sins  of  the  spir- 
itual man,  those  which  mate  us  with  brutes  and 
those  which  mate  us  with  devils  ;  the  former  issu- 
ing from  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  the  latter  from  the 
intellect  and  the  will.  There  are  the  sins  of  un- 
chastity,  uncleanness,  drunkenness,  gluttony,  and 
such  hke  ;  and  then  there  are  the  sins  committed 
under  the  influence  of  self-interest,  hatred,  envy, 
jealousy,  cruelty,  perfidy,  malice  ;  the  sins,  too,  of 
pride,  ambition,  and  covetousness.  ISTow,  in  the 
shallow  ethics  of  the  world  and  in  the  distorted 
ethics  of  many  Christians,  the  brute-like  sins  are 
deemed  more  wicked  than  the  devilish — the  un- 
chaste, the  drunken,  the  beastly  sinner  is  thought  to 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  6i 

be,  and  is  treated  practically  as,  a  far  worse  offender 
than  tlie  man  of  falsehood,  perfidy,  malice,  jeal- 
ousy, and  revenge.  The  same  set  of  people  will 
look  with  horror  upon  the  inebriate  and  Avith  a 
very  mild  sort  of  indignation  upon  the  cheat  and 
the  liar.  In  the  average  judgment,  the  proud, 
hateful,  selfish  character  stands  a  much  better 
chance  than  the  glutton  and  the  fornicator.  ]^ow, 
the  ethics  of  the  Gospel,  as  reflected  in  the  words 
and  deeds  of  Him  to  publish  whom  the  Gospel  was 
given  to  the  world,  take  a  radically  different  view 
of  the  comparative  turpitude  of  these  sins.  There 
we  find  the  sins  of  the  flesh  treated  almost  with 
leniency  as  compared  with  those  of  the  will,  those 
which  disembodied  spirits  can  commit.  They  who 
do  the  former  shall,  indeed,  be  excluded  from  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  But  who  are  they  that  are 
condemned  without  qualification  to  everlasting  fire  ? 
Who  are  they  who  are  to  be  cast  forth  into  outer 
darkness  ?  Why,  they  who  do  not  forgive  as  God 
has  forgiven  them  ;  they  who  neglect  to  feed  the 
hungry  and  clothe  the  naked  ;  they  who  see  Laza- 
rus at  the  gate  and  do  not  pity  him — the  merciless, 
the  hard-hearted,  the  selfish.     It  is  perfectly  certain 


62  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

that  our  Lord  considered  an  omission  of  charity  a 
darker  fact  than  a  sin  of  the  flesh.  In  his  eyes  a 
hypocrite  was  worse  than  a  fornicator  ;  a  hater  of 
his  brother,  than  a  ghittonous  man  and  a  wine -bib- 
ber ;  the  covetous  man  going  about  with  his  heart 
and  his  hand  shut  against  the  poor  was  the  object 
of  a  far  more  intense  scorn  than  the  miserable 
wretch  sleeping  out  his  debauch  in  the  gutter.  To 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery  Christ  says  :  "  Neither 
will  I  condemn  thee  ;  go,  and  sin  no  more. ' '  To 
the  men  who  plundered  the  widow  and  the  father- 
less. He  says  :  "  How  shall  ye  escape  the  damna- 
tion of  hell  ?"  The  model  social  and  moral  reformer 
of  these  days  has  forgotten  this  ;  and  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  many  whose  vocation  it  is  to  deal  with 
cases  of  conscience  and  to  disciphne  notorious  of- 
fenders, whose  vices  spot  our  feasts  of  charity  and 
defile  our  courts  and  sanctuaries,  do  not  sufficiently 
remember  it.  Even  our  Christian  morality  is  in- 
fected with  the  old  Manichean  heresy  ;  else  how 
should  it  have  come  to  pass  that  a  bad  will,  striking 
at  the  very  sovereignty  of  God  and  at  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe,  should  escape  with  a  lighter 


The  CtLve  of  Souls.  63 

sentence  from  the  tribunal  of  judgment  than  a  law- 
less lust  of  the  flesh  ? 

II.  In  most  manuals  for  private  use,  and  in  most 
works  treating  of  the  interior  religious  Hfe,  enough 
has  not  been  made  of  the  imrest  and  anxiety,  and 
sometimes  of  the  painful  anarchy,  engendered  by 
the  loss  of  poise  and  balance  between  belief  and 
motives,  between  our  creed  as  a  whole  and  the  parts 
of  it  which  actually  sway  our  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  every-day  life.  A  healthy  spiritual  life  can  be 
the  product  only  of  the  whole  truth.  A  fragment- 
ary and  hence  a  restless  and  dirorderly  life  must  re- 
sult from  a  fragmentary  conception  of  the  truth. 
It  is  the  complete,  not  the  broken,  dismembered 
Christ  formed  within  us  that  issues  in  "  the  hope  of 
glory."  Now,  it  is  the  task  of  the  guide  of  souls 
to  correct  this  kind  of  disturbance,  and  to  this  end 
he  must  press  on  until  he  find  the  errors,  whether 
of  excess  or  of  defect,  in  faith  or  in  practice  ;  and 
finding  them,  he  must  cure  them  by  re-establishing 
the  equilibrium,  and  with  it  the  regulating  power 
which  can  preserve  it.  He  must  recall  what  has 
been  forgotten,  tone  down  what  has  been  exagger- 
ated, lift  up  what  has  been  depressed.     In  the  cm'e 


64  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

of  souls  no  article  of  dogmatic  or  moral  theology 
can  be  overlooked.  In  preaching  it  is  often  other- 
wise. Not  doctrines,  perhaps,  are  omitted,  but 
needful  aspects  and  bearings  of  doctrines,  points  of 
view,  angles  of  insight,  often  are.  It  has  been  well 
said  that  "  it  is  with  all  individual  Christianity  as  it 
is  with  forms  of  human  government.  At  first  each 
of  them  corresponds  to  the  general  idea  of  society, 
then  more  particularly  to  some  one  of  the  condi- 
tions of  social  life.  Each  has  a  principle  from 
which  it  borrows  its  form  ;  but  each  also  tends  to 
exaggerate  the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded,  as 
if  that  principle  were  the  social  principle  itself. 
Pure  Christianity,  which  has  been  in  some  part 
defined,  Avhile  pure  society  has  been  in  no  part,  has 
a  principle  which  cannot  be  exaggerated,  because  it 
includes  all  j)rinciples — that  is  to  say,  all  the 
weights  and  counter- weights  of  truth.  But  with 
no  individual  has  it  this  largeness  and  this  perfec- 
tion. All  individual  Christianity  makes  a  principle 
to  itself,  which  it  incessantly  tends  to  exaggerate, 
instead  of  tempering  it  with  the  opposite  principle. " 
To  this  contemperature,  or  harmony  of  the  truth, 
the  individual  must  be  recalled  if  he  is  to  enjoy 
real  peace. 


The   CzLre  of  Souls.  65 

But,  again,  some  persons  throw  themselves  out 
of  balance,  and  so  out  of  rest  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  either  by  too  much  self -demonstration  or  by 
too  much  self -concealment.  Of  the  former  no  one 
in  this  age  needs  to  be  reminded,  though  in  many 
it  needs  to  be  held  in  check.  The  latter  is  excep- 
tional, but  not  infrequent,  and  deserves  mention  be- 
cause commonly  overlooked.  There  are  those 
whose  life  is  so  liidden  with  Christ  that  the  world 
knows  little  or  nothing  of  them,  and  the  Church  it- 
self takes  little  note  of  them.  There  is  not  only 
the  hidden  life,  but  there  are  also  hidden  saints — 
too  much  hidden  for  their  own  or  the  Church's 
good  ;  shining  with  a  strong  light  inwardly,  out- 
wardly in  the  shadow  ;  some  among  the  poor,  some 
among  the  sick,  some  among  the  forsaken,  some 
among  the  rich,  some  among  those  in  the  high 
places  of  learning  and  power,  who  veil  themselves, 
their  motives,  their  deeds,  their  sacrifices,  and  are 
content  to  go  through  life  underrated,  misunder- 
stood, even  misrepresented.  The  temple  of  their 
faith  is  built  up  like  that  of  old,  without  noise  of 
any  tool — "  rising  like  the  flowers  in  the  open  spaces 
of  trackless  forests,  growing  silently  and  unseen  of 


66  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

men,  casting  tlie  treasnre  of  their  beantj  and  fra- 
grance immediately  into  the  arms  of  God. ' '  Many  of 
them,  if  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  are  born  Chris- 
tians, certainly  grow  np  into  the  fnll  stature  of 
Christians,  with  little  aj^parent  effort,  with  almost 
no  painful  conflicts,  and  with  very  little  formal  in- 
quiry into  the  grounds  of  what  they  hold.  They 
think  little  of  their  religion,  because  it  is  not  in  their 
nature  to  think  much.  They  feel  all  that  others 
tlihik.  Logically,  they  know  nothing,  but  in  the 
sphere  of  conscience  and  will  they  know  everything. 
To  the  outward  eye  they  have  no  method  about  it, 
and  yet  they  are  under  a  severe  self-discipline. 
The  Church  needs  to  see  more  of  them  for  its  own 
benefit.  They  need  for  their  own  health  and  peace, 
as  well  as  for  their  usefulness,  more  contact  with 
all  hfe  about  them.  Their  hfe  is  timid,  cramped, 
powerless  in  its  manifestations,  because  themselves 
are  abnormally  placed.  It  is  for  us  to  search  after 
such  souls  and  do  what  we  can  to  press  them  more 
to  the  front,  where  the  light  that  is  in  them  shall 
be  seen  of  men  as  the  true  light  that  cometh  down 
from  above, 

III.  I  come  now  to  the  case  of  those  who  will,  or 


The  Citre  of  Souls.  67 

ought  to  seek  counsel  because  of  ignorance  or  mis- 
conception touching  some  fundamental  principle  of 
faith  or  morals.  It  is  surprising  how  much  of  both 
there  is  among  those  who  have  had  the  opportunity 
(and  who  seem  to  have  used  it)  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. Both  pass  unnoticed,  excite  no  remark,  cre- 
ate no  discomfort,  until  something  occurs  to  drive 
the  mind  in  upon  itself  for  light  and  guidance. 
Then  for  the  first  time  it  realizes  how  little  it  has 
profited  by  what  it  has  heard  ;  how,  though  it  has 
seemed  to  be  all  the  while  learning,  it  has  never 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth — an  available, 
coherent  knowledge  at  all  adequate  to  meet  the  in- 
evitable seK-questionings  of  an  awakened  soul. 
Arrested  in  its  course,  confronted  with  its  half -re- 
membered Baptismal  obligations,  or  with  the  yet 
more  definite  and  pressing  form  of  them  developed 
by  Confirmation,  compelled  to  find  answers  to  a 
score  of  questions  respecting  faith  and  practice,  it 
suddenly,  and  with  pain,  perhaps,  awakes  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  for  years  using  words  and  hear- 
ing them  used,  words  standing  for  matters  of  the 
most  vital  moment,  without  any  sense  of  their  real 
meaning.     There  may  be  a  tolerably  rich  Christian 


68  Condones  ad  Clertcm. 

vocabulary  and  yet  no  genuine  knowledge.  It  is 
astonisliing  liow  long  we  may  toss  words  about,  one 
to  another — words  coined  in  tlie  most  approved 
mints,  even  those  of  inspiration  itseK — without  be- 
ing intelligently  sure  of  what  they  really  express. 
Take,  for  example,  the  terms  which  embody  the 
objective  verities  of  the  Gospel,  such  as  mediation, 
sacrifice,  atonement,  redemption,  regeneration,  or 
others  representing  subjective  acts  and  frames,  such 
as  faith,  repentance,  grace,  love,  or  of  any  one  of  a 
hundred  others.  Thousands  of  intelligent  people 
are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  terminology  of  di- 
vine truth  so  far  as  sound  and  spelling  go.  Its 
words  and  phrases  are  heard  so  often  that  the  hearer 
drifts  insensibly  into  certain  vague  notions  based  on 
a  sort  of  presumptive  knowledge,  which,  in  the 
hour  of  trial,  when  the  heart  far  more  than  the  head 
insists  upon  a  clearer  perception  of  its  own  ills  and 
lapses,  and  of  God's  remedies  for  them,  is  no  more 
the  knowledge  needed  than  the  fog- wreaths  around 
the  mountain-tops  are  the  mountains  themselves. 

And  while  I  am  on  this  point,  I  may  say,  further, 
that  this  vagueness  of  view  as  to  the  recognized  and 
accepted  verbal  pivots  of  God's  truth,  running  aU 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  69 

the  way  from  obscure  apprehension  down  to  positive 
ignorance,  hinders  or  defeats  the  preacher's  work 
far  beyond  what  most  of  11s  imagine.  A  sermon  is 
carefully  wrought  out  with  the  best  learning  and 
the  nicest  rhetorical  art.  It  marches  steadily  on, 
at  every  step  gaining  in  fervor  and  power,  to  its 
concluding  appeal,  which  is  enforced  with  an  unc- 
tion of  feeling  and  energy  of  manner  that  ought  to 
carry  everything  before  them.  When  all  is  over, 
the  preacher  is  saddened,  humihated,  perhaps  dis- 
couraged, to  find  that  his  message  has  died  away  on 
the  hollow  air,  leaving  behind  it  no  sign,  the  souls  he 
expected  to  reach  unmoved,  nothing  remembered 
or  spoken  of  except  the  style,  the  choice  figures 
of  speech,  the  apt  citations  from  the  Scriptures  or 
from  general  literature.  He  endeavors  to  account 
for  the  mortifying  failure.  He  imagines  every 
cause  but  the  true  one.  The  sockets  in  which  the 
joints  of  liis  sermon  played,  the  nexus  of  his  argu- 
ment, in  more  than  one  instance  consisted  of  single 
words  or  phrases,  which  he  used  with  a  perfectly 
definite  meaning,  but  which,  to  the  majority  of  his 
hearers,  were  about  as  intelligible  as  would  have 
been  so  many  algebraic  signs.     And  what  is  more, 


JO  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

it  will  not  be  until  the  preacher  has  left  study  and 
pulpit  behind  him  and  passed  out  into  the  actual 
lives,  the  living  experiences,  the  hidden  wants  of  his 
flock,  taken  up  one  by  one,  handled  in  individual 
cases  and  in  private,  that  he  will  see  why  his  well- 
forged  shots  have  fallen  short  of,  or  missed  the 
target. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  ignorance  that  will  oblige 
awakened  souls  to  seek  for  special  instruction  and 
guidance.  There  is  another  ignorance  even  more 
difficult  to  deal  with,  because  more  subtle  in  its  in- 
fluences and  less  obvious  in  its  forms.  It  is  no 
unusual  thing  to  find  a  bright  intellect  mated  with 
a  blind  conscience,  much  culture  dwelling  in  close 
intimacy  with  dark  and  dull  moral  affections.  Large 
attainments  in  one  direction  may  delude  us  into  the 
belief  that  they  are  equally  so  in  another  direction, 
where  our  interest  especially  centres.  This,  truly,  is 
a  reading  generation.  The  popular  curiosity  wan- 
dere  at  will.  The  press  is  ubiquitous,  and  though 
not  reverential  on  religious  subjects,  at  times  not 
even  decently  respectful,  yet  it  gives  large  space  to 
religious  themes  and  interests.  So  that,  though  the 
Sunday-school  and  the  Pulpit  be  not  taken  into  ac- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  71 

count,  and  our  view  be  confined  to  the  secular  and 
the  religious  press,  we  may  fairly  assume  the  exist- 
ence of  a  considerably  high  average  of  Christian  in- 
telligence among  the  people.  And  yet  what  pastor 
has  not  been  shocked  at  the  ignorance  on  elementary 
questions  which  he  has  unearthed  in  minds  of  more 
than  ordinary  cultivation,  and  enjoying  habitual 
contact  with  the  best  sources  of  rehgious  knowl- 
edge ? 

The  Scriptures  are  not  read,  whatever  else  may 
be,  far  less  studied.  The  Church  is  known  as  very 
little  more  than  an  existing  institiition,  without  liv- 
ing roots  in  the  past,  without  a  great  and  wonderful 
history  attesting  God's  presence  not  only  in  itself, 
but  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  It  is  needless  to 
speak  of  the  treatment  given  to  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  for  it  has  become  the  fashion  to  decry 
these  in  favor  of  the  moral,  the  sentimental,  the  83s- 
thetic  side  of  it.  Few  there  are  who  find  their 
duty  or  their  pleasure  in  studying  them.  They  are 
set  aside  and  even  ridiculed  in  some  quarters  as 
"  the  withered  leaves,"  "  the  sapless  husks,"  "  the 
dry  bones  "  of  religion,  with  which  really  cultured 
and  progressive  minds  have  no  vocation  to  meddle. 


Condones  ad  Cleruiit. 


Tlie  young,  as  a  rule,  have  been  for  a  generation 
past,  and  are  now  being,  reared  in  tlie  same  notions 
and  in  tlie  practice  engendered  by  tlieni,  and,  I 
may  add,  in  the  ignorance  and  misconception  whicli 
are  the  fruits  of  both. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  of  this  sort  of  ignorance  as 
of  moral  ignorance,  in  the  midst  of  much  formal, 
technical  knowledge  of  the  truth,  that  I  wish  to 
speak.  God's  "Word,  after  it  is  done  speaking  to 
us,  and  its  task  is  finished,  as  a  medium  of  light 
from  heaven  to  earth,  reminds  us  that  after  all  its 
varied,  vivid,  complete  communications  of  the  di- 
vine will  to  man,  he  may  yet  be  almost  as  much  in 
the  dark  as  though  tliey  had  not  reached  him.  The 
natural  man  is  at  enmity  with  God  ;  his  understand- 
ing is  darkened,  his  heart  alienated,  so  that  he  can- 
not perceive  the  things  of  God.  S^^iritual  truth, 
because  it  is  spiritual,  must  be  spiritually  discerned. 
Now,  it  is  this  law  which  so  many  with  whom  we 
have  to  deal  are  constantly,  persistently  disregard- 
ing. They  insist  upon  \vx\\^\\).^  intellectually  yAx^i^ 
if  it  is  to  liavc  power  over  them,  must  be  handled 
sjnritually.  The  guide  of  souls  has  no  more  stub- 
born difficulty  to  contend  with.     It  meets  him  at 


The  Cure  of  Souls,  ^2) 

every  turn.  There  is  only  one  tiling  left  for  liim  to 
do.  He  must,  by  persuasion  and  entreaty,  bring 
the  soul  thus  hindered  to  its  knees  in  prayer  for  the 
light  in  which  alone  it  can  see  light.  He  must  deal 
with  it  as  Christ  dealt  with  those  who  gathered 
about  Him  in  the  synagogue  and  the  temple,  on  the 
sea  and  the  hill-side.  The  particulars  of  His  deal- 
ing would  be  too  large  a  subject  to  go  into  in  this 
connection.  The  key  to  its  marvellous  magnetism, 
its  irresistible  j^ower,  its  inexhaustible  range  of 
adaptation  will  not  escape  us  if,  as  His  deputies  and 
ambassadors,  we  study  as  we  ought  the  records  of 
His  character  and  work.  The  love  of  both,  wonder 
at,  gratitude  for,  both,  drew  men  to  Him,  and,  once 
drawn  there,  they  caught  something  by  the  contact, 
call  it  what  we  maj' — grace,  virtue,  power,  or  what 
not — something  that  lifted  the  heart  above  the  in- 
tellect, the  conscience  above  the  understanding,  the 
will  above  the  jjropensities  of  the  animal  man,  and 
so  enabled  the  deaf  to  hear,  the  blind  to  see,  and 
the  lame  to  walk,  and  as  both  cause  and  effect  of 
the  change,  brought  man  into  confoniiity  with  that 
universal  law  of  sj)iritual  truth,  viz. ,  that  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  must  be  spiritually  discerned.     Now, 


74  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

in  tlie  work  of  guiding  individual  souls,  we,  as  tlie 
ordained  representatives  of  the  ever-living  Christ, 
and  empowered  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  carry  on  His 
ministry  among  men,  must  bring  them  to  Him  so 
that  He  may  do  for  them  just  what  Ho  did  for  those 
who  of  old  went  forth  from  His  presence  and  His 
touch,  crying  out,  "  1  was  blind,  and  now  I  see  ;  1 
was  lame  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  now  I 
walk  ;  I  had  an  unclean  spirit,  and  now  I  am 
clothed  and  in  my  right  mind." 

Do  you  say  such  direction  as  this  is  too  indefinite, 
that  it  does  not  give  the  jDarticulars,  step  by  step, 
of  the  true  mode  of  treating  the  ignorant  and,  be- 
cause ignorant,  the  spiritually  dead  ?  I  reply,  the 
power  derived  upon  us  by  Christ  to  teach  and 
guide,  and  upon  the  souls  whom  we  teach  and 
guide,  can  no  more  be  described  in  particulars  or 
resolved  into  simpler  elements,  and  yet  do  its  work 
and  be  what  it  is,  than  the  atmosphere  which  vitalizes 
our  lungs,  and  through  them  our  blood,  or  gravity, 
which  holds  all  things  in  their  places.  It  is  to  us 
one  force,  one  energy,  just  as  Christ,  its  source,  is 
one.  It  is  continuous  in  its  manifestation  and 
ubiquitous  in  its  presence.     Its  objective  centre  is 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  75 

Christ  Himself,  its  subjective,  every  soul,  whether 
priest  or  layman,  high  or  low,  bond  or  free,  that  ac- 
cepts and  reproduces  it  as  the  one  living  power 
which  can  turn  the  sinner  from  his  sin  and  bestow 
upon  him  the  gift  of  eternal  life.  There  are  differ- 
ent degrees^  but  not  different  kinds,  of  this  power. 
Some  may  have  more  and  some  less  of  it,  but  what 
they  have  is  all  of  the  same  kind.  And  woe  to  the 
pastorate  that  has  none  of  it  ;  woe  rather  to  the 
man  who  can  be  content  with  such  a  pastorate,  the 
form  without  the  power,  the  body  without  the  soul, 
orders  without  grace,  the  holy  priesthood  without  a 
call.  Erudition,  culture,  eloquence,  personal  gifts, 
and  attractions  may  float  a  man  and  give  him  some- 
thing of  a  figure  as  a  preacher,  but  in  the  actual 
cure  of  souls  all  these  are  but  the  fringes  of  the  gar- 
ment of  power.  The  garment  itself  must  be  woven 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  after  the  pattern  of  that  worn 
by  the  Great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  Souls. 

ly.  As  Christianity  is  the  religion  ybr  the  trans- 
gressor because  it  is  the  religion  of  a  Divine  Sa- 
viour ;  so  it  is  the  religion  for  the  suffering  because 
it  is  the  religion  of  a  Divine  Sufferer.  Rich  as  it 
is  in  its  overtures  to  the  sinner,  it  is  not  more  so 


76  Condones  ad  Clerum. 


than  it  is  in  the  helps  which  it  offers  to  the  troubled 
and  the  sorrowing.  And  what  it  is  in  itseK,  just 
that  it  has  been  throughout  its  history.  In  every 
age  its  formal  theological  literature  has  been  no 
more  varied  and  abundant  than  its  literature  of  con- 
solation. That  such  should  have  been  the  case  is 
only  what  might  be  expected  ;  for  as  Christianity 
was  intended  to  j^rovide  for  all  the  moral  needs  of 
man,  so  eminently  was  it  intended  to  meet  equally 
those  twin  facts  in  his  life — sin  and  sorrow.  Of  ne- 
cessity, this  dual  function  is  repeated  and  exempli- 
fied in  the  pastorate  charged  with  the  cure  of  souls. 
Practically  and  theoretically  considered,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  determine  whether  Christ^s  deputies 
are  more  occupied  in  the  work  of  jDublishing  the 
terms  of  the  remission  of  sin  and  administering  the 
seals  of  forgiveness,  than  in  the  work  of  comforting 
the  distressed  and  the  afflicted.  Certain  it  is  that 
no  priest  can  be  properly  trained  and  furnished  for 
his  high  office  who  is  not  equally  qualified  for  both 
these  tasks.  To  teach  and  to  comfort  are  only  dif- 
ferent sides  of  the  same  commission,  and  the  training 
that  fits  him  to  do  the  one  ought  to  fit  him  to  do  the 
other.     And  yet  many  are  they  who  are  successful 


1  he  Cure  of  So2iIs.  77 

teachers,  Imt  unsuccessful  comforters.  Thej  can 
expound  well  the  truths  and  promises  of  God's 
Word  revealed  to  lighten  our  darkness  and  soothe 
our  troubles,  but  they  lack  the  gentle  tact  and  the 
quick  sympathy  needed  to  bring  them  home.  How 
many  can  preach  patience  and  resignation  with  al- 
most angelic  tenderness,  who  fail  in  their  pastoral 
dealings  to  excite  and  develop  these  graces  in  indi- 
vidual hearts.  The  fervid  tongue  in  the  pulpit 
somehow  dwindles  away  into  cold  silence  in  the 
chamber  of  sickness  and  in  the  house  of  the  mourn- 
er. How  sadly,  sometimes,  able  and  godly  men  dis- 
appoint themselves  and  others  in  their  private  min- 
istrations amid  scenes  of  trial  and  grief,  where  ser- 
mons about  Christ  the  Consoler  must  give  place  to 
counsels  fresh  from  the  heart  of  Christ  and  bound 
upon  the  aching,  lacerated  soul  as  the  skilful  sur- 
geon puts  the  lint  into  the  gaping  wound  or  the 
bandage  on  the  broken  Kmb.  Some  lack  nerve  and 
self-possession,  and  so  are  partially  unmanned  by 
the  emergency  ;  some  lack  the  sjonpathetic  temper- 
ament, a  deficiency  which  no  amount  of  study  and 
experience  can  remedy  ;  while  some  again  are  in- 
efficient because  they  have  failed  to  draw  up  into 


78  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

their  own  hearts  tlic  wealth  of  consolation  whose 
golden  threads  are  woven  into  every  page  of  God's 
Word.  Now,  the  weaker  we  are  on  this  side  of 
our  pastorate,  the  harder  Ave  should  apply  ourselves 
to  overcome  the  weakness.  Those,  in  effect,  are 
only  half-truths  which  we  proclaim  in  public  and 
fail  to  apply  in  private.  We  were  ordained  to  con- 
sole as  well  as  to  preach.  Indeed,  our  ministry  is 
one  of  consolation,  because  it  is  one  of  reconcilia- 
tion ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  guide  into  the  way 
of  all  truth,  is  not  more  operative  in  the  latter 
than,  as  the  Comforter,  he  is  in  the  former.  To 
be  lame  in  either  ministry  is,  as  ambassadors  of 
Christ  and  witnesses  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  present 
to  a  world  of  gloom  and  wretchedness  a  broken  im- 
age of  Him  who  came  to  be  its  light,  and  a  stifled 
message  of  Him  who  came  to  be  its  comfort. 

It  does  not  fall  within  my  design  to  go  into  the 
details  of  the  training  required  by  this  side  of  the 
sacred  office,  nor  into  particulars  touching  the  exer- 
cise of  it  when  it  has  been  duly  trained.  My  pur- 
pose will  be  met  by  calling  attention  to  a  few  great 
guiding  principles. 

(1)  Most  persons,  so  long  as  they  are  untouched 


The   Cure  of  Souls.  79 

bj  serious  trial,  are  content  with  a  surface  view  of 
the  wretchedness  that  stretches  out  from  them  on 
all  sides  of  the  world.  It  is  simply  one  of  the  as- 
pects of  life  with  which  they  are  not  inclined  to 
meddle.  The  mystery,  if  not  the  agony,  of  it  repels 
them,  and  they  take  refuge,  amid  the  dark  questions 
which  it  evolves,  in  a  sort  of  tranquil  vagueness  of 
conception,  or  in  such  23latitudes  and  generalities  as 
have  been  made  current  by  the  customary  lan- 
guage of  sorrow-smitten  hearts  in  all  ages  of  man- 
kind. They  behold,  they  pity,  and  then  turn  away 
exclaiming  :  '*'  Such  is  the  world  !"  "  So  it  always 
has  been,  so  it  must  be,"  "It  is  inscrutable; 
there  is  no  help  for  it."  But  when  themselves  are 
broken  upon  the  wheel,  or  scorched  by  the  fire  of 
that  experience  which,  sooner  or  later,  comes  upon 
all,  they  are  swept  on  as  by  an  irresistible  impulse 
to  questionings  which  bring  them  face  to  face  with 
that  darkest  of  all  problems — the  origin  of  evil. 
They  pierce  through,  one  after  another,  all  the 
deepening  layers  of  thought,  all  the  methods  and 
appliances  of  consolation,  whether  suggested  by  the 
speculative  reason,  or  the  equally  speculative  imagi- 
nation, or  formally  presented  by  Divine  Revelation, 


8o  Condones  ad  Clcrinn. 

pushing  on  and  on  along  the  sliadowed  path  of  in- 
quiry, until  the  demand  leaps  imperiously  from 
their  lips  ;  Whence  came  the  hated,  dreadful  thing  ? 
Why  is  it  here  ?  Why  was  it  permitted  ?  What  does 
it  mean  ?  How  could  human  life  and  the  world, 
which  is  the  scene  of  its  development,  have  become 
what  they  are  under  the  government  of  a  God  of 
love — if  there  be  such  a  Being  ?  There  is  little  sat- 
isfaction in  telling  them  that  these  questions  have 
been  asked  from  the  beginning,  or  that  human  rea- 
son, often  as  it  has  grasped  them  M^itli  passionate 
eagerness  and  defiant  resolve,  has,  after  every  at- 
tempt, fallen  back  on  itself  in  helpless  perplexity 
and  in  hopeless  defeat.  And  the  case  practically  is 
not  mended  much  by  pointing  them  to  the  testi- 
mony of  Revelation.  For  that  simply  asserts  the 
facts  in  all  their  sharp  antagonism,  with  no  attempt 
at  what  man  considers  an  explanation.  It  tells  who 
God  is  and  what  He  does  ;  it  declares  His  absolute 
perfections  and  guards  them  against  assault  at  all 
points.  Whatever  the  evil,  whatever  the  wretched- 
ness, it  affirms  that  He  is  not  their  Author.  The 
world  has  become  what  it  is  by  the  creature's,  not  the 
Creator's,  will.      It  is  out  of  joint,  unhinged,  disor- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  8i 

dered,  groaneth  and  travailetli  in  pain,  becanse  man 
has  lapsed  from  what  God  made  him,  and  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  moral  liberty  has  broken  God's  statutes. 
The  latest  utterance  of  philosophical  wisdom  af- 
firms that  the  world's  fine  of  movement  is  that  of 
progress  by  evolution,  that  of  growth  toward  per- 
fection by  the  struggle  and  conflict  of  powers  shut  up 
within  itself,  that  the  evil  which  disorders  and  poi- 
sons and  smites  us  is  not  what  the  Bible  means  by 
sin,  but  the  imperfection,  bound  up  with  limitations 
of  will  and  intelligence,  which  humanity  somewhere 
in  the  rolling  ages  is  destined  to  overcome  by  the 
gradual  unfolding  of  what  is  in  itself.  Christian- 
ity, on  the  other  hand,  affirms  that  the  transgression 
of  the  law,  which  is  sin,  is  the  parent  of  the  anar- 
chy and  woe  which  shake  the  universe  and  rend  the 
heart  of  man,  that  the  only  real  progress  is  of  the  na- 
ture of  a  recovery  of  what  has  been  lost,  that  man's 
destiny  can  be  reaHzed  only  by  a  restoration,  to  be 
wrought  out  by  a  redemption  offered  to  man  by  the 
grace  of  God  incarnated  and  j^ersonated  in  Jesus 
Christ,  His  only  begotten  Son.*     The  two  affirma- 

*  So  great  has  been  the  progress  of  late  of  what  is  known  as 
"  The  Theory  of  Evolution,"  and  such  has  been  the  dogmatic 


82  Condones  ad  Clertwt. 

tions,  the  two  theories,  with  their  respective  instru- 
mentalities and  methods,  are  in  radical  and  irrecon- 
cilable opposition.  It  is  impossible  to  hold  fast  by 
both,  and  the  quality  and  degree  of  the  comfort 
wliich  we  can  administer  to  disquieted  or  crushed 
and    bleeding    hearts  will  be  determined  by  our 

assurance  with  which  it  has  been  taught,  that  not  a  few  Chris- 
tian teachers,  if  they  have  not  lost,  faith  in  the  Christian  doc- 
trine that  all  true  progress  of  the  human  race  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  recovery  of  a  lost  perfection,  or  a  restoration  of  a  lost  type, 
have  at  least  grown  timid  in  asserting  it.  We  have  grown  so 
familiar  with  modes  of  speech  implying  or  affirming  the  grad- 
ual supplanting,  throughout  the  world  of  organic  existences,  of 
lower  by  higher  forms,  according  to  a  universal  law  of  devel- 
opment or  evolution,  that  we  are  falling,  little  by  little,  into 
the  way  of  giving  a  passive  assent  to  what  is  so  positively  as- 
serted, but  what  is  as  far  off  from  demonstrative  proof  as  when 
it  was  first  propounded.  It  is  certain  that  this  theory,  when 
summoned  before  the  highest  tribunals  of  criticism,  has,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  ignominiously  failed  to  win  a  place  among 
ascertained  and  established  truths.  The  latest  verdict  from  the 
best  authorities  relegates  it  to  the  list  of  clever  but  un proven 
hypotheses.  If  there  be  subtracted  from  the  process  by  which 
it  has  been  built  up,  what  has  been  done  by  imagination  and 
dogmatism,  and  with  this  the  dropped  links  in  the  chain  of  evi- 
dence and  the  facts  that  yet  stubbornly  refuse  to  be  dovetailed 
into  this  pretentious  speculation,  there  is  not  so  much  left  of 
it  as  some  suppose.  Of  late,  moreover,  there  are  signs,  not  to 
say  solid  proofs,  of  such  a  new  and  radically  difierent  reading 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  Zt^ 

choice  of  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  concej)tioiis 
of  the  world  and  of  human  life.  If  we  accept  the 
latest  philosophy,  we  must  be  content  to  stand 
speechless  amid  scenes  of  suffering,  to  bind  up  no 
wounds,  to  pour  into  aching  souls  no  mollifying 

of  the  facts  accumulated  with  so  much  labor  and  research  by 
the  advocates  of  evolution,  as  to  portend  a  violent  and  de- 
structive reaction  against  its  triumphantly  heralded  conclu- 
sions. The  evolutionists  have  argued  much  in  favor  of  their 
theory  from  the  long-received  and  long-undisputed  undulatory 
theory  of  light  and  sound.  This  theory  has  been  fatally  dam- 
aged, not  to  say  completely  overthrown,  by  the  recent  investi- 
gation and  reasoning  of  A.  WilfordHall  in  his  "  Problem  of 
Human  Life" — a  work  that  carries  the  war  into  the  very  heart 
of  Darwin's  citadel.  But  more  to  my  purpose  is  another  able 
and  striking  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  general  sub- 
ject, by  T.  Warren  O'Neill,  entitled  "  The  Refutation  of  Dar- 
winism, and  the  Converse  Theory  of  Development."  His  de- 
sign is  to  show  that  "  the  very  same  facts  which  Darwin  con- 
fesses his  inability  to  explain,  yet  upon  which  he  relies  to  sus- 
tain his  theory,  may  be  explained  in  a  way  which  signally  dis- 
proves the  theory  that  man  and  other  species  of  animal  and 
species  of  plant  were  evolved  from  lower  types."  "All  of 
Darwin's  facts  are  taken  for  granted,  as  are  all  his  scientific 
factors.  The  same  facts,  however,  are  differently  apportioned, 
with  but  a  slight  variation  from  Darwin's  mode  of  distribution 
of  them." 

Reversing  the  evolution  view,  this  author  insists  that  the  proto- 
type of  each  species  was  an  organism  oi  a  higher  state  of  devel- 


84  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

ointment.  We  can  only,  with  folded  hands  and 
silent  tongues,  watch  the  mighty  machine  while  it 
grinds  hearts  and  wills,  flesh  and  spirit  to  powder, 
telling  those  who  are  thus  broken  and  triturated 
under  the  ponderous  hammer  of  invariable,  inmiu- 

opmenl  than  the  type  of  such  species  as  now  found  under  na- 
ture. Adverse  conditions  entailed  the  suppression  of  the  char- 
acters, and  the  mere  restoration  of  the  favorable  conditions  se- 
cures their  redevelopment.  All  reduction,  as  claimed  by  the 
author,  from  the  typical  number  of  parts  and  suppression  of 
function  counts  as  a  degradation  of  the  animal  or  plant,  and 
their  recovery  as  an  improvement,  which  favorable  conditions 
may  secure. 

It  maybe  that  this  writer's  general  view  may  be  overthrown, 
and  his  reasoning  shown  to  be  defective  ;  but  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  both  are  as  plausible  and  apparently  as  well  sustained 
as  the  theory  of  Mr.  Darwin  aud  the  arguments  by  which  he 
supports  it.  I  have  referred  to  the  work  only  as  a  sign  of 
the  coming  reaction,  and  as  going  to  prove  that  the  old  doctrine, 
that  all  true  progress  of  the  race  is  of  the  nature  of  a  recovery 
and  a  restoration,  has  a  solid  basis  not  only  in  Revelation,  but 
also  in  science.  The  issue  between  the  two  theories  is  by  no 
means  settled,  nor  are  the  arguments  and  evidences  all  on  one 
side,  as  some  seem  to  suppose.  In  fact,  though  much  has 
been  said  against  the  Bible  view,  yet  not  enough  has  been 
inoved  to  shake  our  conviction  of  its  truth,  or  to  make  us  timid 
and  reluctant  in  asserting  it. 

Quite  in  harmony  with  this  view  of  the  origin  and  natural 
history  of  man,  are  the  results  arrived  at  by  M.  Le  Page 


The  Citre  of  Souls.  85 

table  law,  or  whelmed  in  the  bottomless  gulf  of  a 
fatalism  which  is  only  another  name  for  this  notion 
of  law,  that  there  is  no  comfort  for  them  save  what 
they  can  derive  from  a  vague  hope  of  a  possible 
perfection  to  be  evolved  afar  off,  in  inconceivably 

Renouf,  in  his  "  Hibbert  Lectures"  (1879),  "  On  the  Origin  and 
Growth  of  Religion,  as  Illustrated  by  the  Religion  of  Ancient 
Egypt."  So  far  from  Fetichism  being  the  first  step  in  the 
growth  of  religion,  he  claims  that  the  earliest  religion  of  Egypt 
(the  earliest  of  known  religions)  was  monotheistic,  and  that  the 
earliest  developments  of  Monotheism  were  the  noblest  and 
purest.  "It  is,"  he  says,  "  incontestably  true  that  the  sub- 
limer  portions  of  the  Egyptian  religion  are  not  the  compara- 
tively late  results  of  a  process  of  development  or  diminution 
from  the  grosser  ;  and  that  its  last  stage — that  known  to  the 
Greek  and  Latin  writers,  heathen  or  Christian — was  by  far  Iho 
grossest  and  most  corrupt.  Renouf  quotes  with  approval  M. 
de  Rouge,  who  says:  "It  is  more  than  five  thousand  years 
since,  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  the  hymn  began  to  the  unity 
of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  ;  and  we  find  Egypt  in 
the  last  ages  arrived  at  the  most  unbridled  Polytheism.  The 
belief  in  the  unity  of  God  and  in  His  attributes  as  Creator  and 
Lawgiver  of  man,  whom  he  has  endowed  with  an  immortal 
soul — these  are  the  primitive  notions,  enchased  like  indestruc- 
tible diamonds  in  the  midst  of  the  mythological  superfetatinns 
accumulated  in  the  centuries  which  have  passed  over  that 
ancient  life."  So  that,  religiously,  man's  life  is  a  degenera- 
tion, and  his  true  progress  now  of  the  nature  of  a  recovery  or 
a  restoration. 


86  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

distant  ages,  from  the  embryos  of  to  day  passing  np 
by  "  the  sm*vival  of  the  fittest"  into  the  completed 
types  of  the  future.  How  soothing  and  strength- 
ening such  comfort  is,  how  efficacious  it  is  in  dry- 
ing up  human  tears  over  the  sick,  the  dying,  and 
the  dead,  or  amid  any  of  tlie  trials  which  moisten 
the  brow  as  Avith  the  sweat  of  an  insupportable  ag- 
ony, they  only  can  tell  who  have  tried  it.  It  would 
seem  as  though  such  a  view  could  offer  but  two 
things  to  be  done — both  involving  a  return  to  a 
worn-out  paganism — either  with  the  stoic  to  despise, 
or  with  the  epicurean  to  laugh  at,  what  we  cannot 
help. 

(2)  Now,  these  thoughts  fairly  pave  the  way  to  a 
consideration  of  the  two  rival  modes  of  dealing  with 
evil  when  developed  into  actual  j)ain — the  one  that 
of  the  natural  reason,  carrying  essentially  the  same 
idea  through  all  its  various  treatments ;  the  other 
that  of  Christianity.  Pain  is  evil  intensified  and 
at  work  upon  sensitive  beings.  It  is  the  wide-spread 
disorder  and  unhingement  of  nature  localized  in 
individual  bodies  and  individual  souls.  As  such,  no 
grade  or  aspect  of  human  life  escapes  its  visitation.  . 
It  sweeps  along    the  nerves,   darts  through  every 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  87 

fibre  of  the  flesh,  nestles  in  the  intellect,  eats  into 
the  will,  and  searches  as  with  a  point  of  steel  the  re- 
cesses of  the  heart.  J  take  it  as  a  fact  of  experi- 
ence, a  fact  bound  up  with  our  earthly  inheritance, 
and,  wherever  we  find  it,  wet  with  tears  and  cloud- 
ed with  mystery.  Accepting  it  as  a  fact,  how  do 
the  two  rival  systems — the  one  of  nature,  the  other 
of  grace,  the  one  of  man,  the  other  of  God — handle 
it  ?  If  ours  is  to  be  a  ministry  of  consolation,  we 
must  see  definitely  and  palpably  the  grounds  on 
which  it  rests,  and  the  resources  at  its  command. 
There  can  be  no  more  practical  and  urgent  question 
named  in  connection  with  the  cure  of  souls.  If  the 
painter  must  know  his  colors  and  the  law  of  their 
combination,  if  the  physician  must  know  the  reme- 
dies he  apphes,  the  surgeon,  the  instruments  he  han- 
dles, the  chemist,  the  ingredients  and  properties  of 
matter,  the  lawyer,  the  statutes  which  regulate  the 
administration  of  justice,  so  must  the  priest  under- 
stand the  means  at  his  disposal  when  he  deals  with 
bruised  or  broken  hearts. 

What,  then,  have  these  systems  to  say  for  them- 
selves ?  Pain,  says  reason,  is  a  thing  of  mystery  and 
power ;  whence  it  came  and  why  it  works  cannot 


88  Coficiones  ad  Cleruin. 

certainly  be  affirmed.  There  are  some  gromids  for 
believing  it  not  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  justice 
and  benevolence  of  the  Supreme  Being,  if  there  be 
one.  We  know  it  has  some  uses,  and  it  may  have 
others.  It  makes  us  vigilant  and  cautious  against 
danger.  Itself,  in  part,  the  fruit  of  carelessness,  or 
ignorance,  or  excess  in  dealing  with  nature's  laws,  it 
warns  us  not  to  repeat  them.  It  is,  therefore,  mon- 
itory and  protective.  But,  besides  this,  pain  adds 
a  relish  to  pleasure  by  now  and  then  breaking  its 
current.  It  is  the  shadow  needed  to  bring  out  the 
light,  the  discord  that  enhances  the  harmony.  And, 
then,  it  gives  a  wholesome  tone  to  some  of  the  vir- 
tues. It  says  to  firmness,  do  not  be  shaken  ;  to 
fortitude,  hold  fast  ;  to  courage,  do  not  be  afraid. 
Here,  reason,  in  its  moral  use  and  exphcation  of  this 
profound  and  universal  fact,  must  stoj).  It  has  no 
other  word  for  the  suffering  and  anguish  of  mankind. 
It  has  no  voice  of  mercy,  however  it  may  have  a  look 
of  sympathy.  Certainly  it  has  no  tears,  no  rescues, 
no  alleviations  of  love  to  offer.  The  torn  body  and 
the  stricken  soul  plead  in  vain  for  something  more. 
Man  is  left  a  stranger,  an  orphan,  to  decipher  for 
himself   the   dark   handwriting  of   grief   and   ruin 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  89 

graven  upon  l>is  life  by  an  unseen  power.  What 
matters  it  tliat  lie  is  told  by  the  epicurean  to  escape 
pain  by  inventing  new  pleasures,  or  by  the  stoic  to 
disregard  it  as  a  thing  too  mean  to  make  the  will 
tremble.  This  is  only  the  comfort  which  the  blind 
give  to  the  blind.* 

Turn  now  to  Christian  teaching,  and  weigh  what 
it  says  and  does  in  respect  to  this  fact  of  pain.  It 
does  not  do  away  with  its  mystery,  or  reduce  its 
power,  or  lessen  its  bitterness  as  an  actual,  inevita- 
ble experience,  or  in  any  way  represent  it  to  be 
other  than  precisely  what  it  is.  It  is  inscnitably 
and  indissolubly  linked  to  sin,  and  came  into  this 
frame  of  things  with  a  fatal  lapse  of  our  nature. 
Under  the  first  Adam,  and  as  a  fact  of  nature,  it 
was  part  of  the  wages  of  sin  ;  but  in  Christ,  the  sec- 
ond Adam,  from  heaven,  it  became  also  a  power  of 
cleansing  and  perfection.     He  permits  it  to  abide 

*  "  It  is  remarkable  that  men  so  acute  as  Zeno  and  many  of 
his  disciples  of  the  Stoic  school  did  not  perceive  and  ac- 
knowledge that  if  'pain  were  not  an  evil,  cruelty  would  not  be  a 
vice.  One  such  consequence  of  their  system  was  enough  to 
demonstrate  its  untenableness. " — Sir  James  Mackintosh's 
"  Progress  of  Ethical  Philosophy,  Retrospect  of  Ancient 
Ethics"  (p.  102). 


QO  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

in  His  kingdom,  but  He  lias  reduced  it  to  subjec- 
tion and  converted  it  into  a  recognized  instrument 
in  the  discipline  of  His  people.  It  is  now  the  min- 
ister not  more  of  God's  severity,  than  of  God's 
mercj.  To  the  godless  it  is  still  what  it  once  was 
— a  dark  and  crushing  reality  ;  to  the  godly  it  is  as 
the  refiner's  tire,  purging  out  the  soils  of  the  spir- 
itual nature.  The  school  of  suffering  is  the  school 
of  sanctity.  The  path  of  trial  winds  out  of  the 
world  up  to  our  true  home.  Thus  pain  becomes  the 
surest  and  strongest  bond  of  union  with  the  true 
and  the  perfect.  We  find  it  a  fact  of  nature,  an 
experience  of  man,  a  thing  sharp,  searching,  and 
terrible.  A  divine  faith  takes  it  into  its  cnicible, 
and  it  comes  out  a  new  power,  baptized  and  or- 
dained unto  new  ministries  and  fellowships.  Thus 
transformed,  suffering  rises  to  its  noblest  aspect  and 
re-appears  in  the  form  of  self-sacrifice — the  one  irre- 
sistible power  in  the  conquest  of  moral  evil.  It 
was  the  law  of  the  new  creation  that  our  Divine 
Saviour  should  be  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief,"  and  it  is  part  of  this  law  that  they 
whom  He  delivers  shall  be  conformed  to  Him  in 
this   quality  of   Ilis  perfection.     So  deej)  is  this 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  91 

principle  laid  in  the  ethics  of  redemption  that  St. 
Paul  does  not  hesitate  to  argue,  in  the  words, 
"  What  son  is  he  whom  the  Father  chasteneth  not  ?" 
that  to  be  free  from  suffering,  to  know  no  chastise- 
ment, is  an  exemption  to  be  feared  rather  than  cov- 
eted, as  clouding  or  excluding  the  brightest  tokens 
of  sonship  in  the  family  of  God. 

These,  then,  are  the  uses  and  ends  of  pain  in  the 
discipline  of  Christianity.  It  melts  and  casts  out  the 
stubborn  dross  of  nature.  It  transfigures  the  in- 
ward life  into  the  image  of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of 
life.  Its  strokes  are  those  of  the  cliisel  rounding 
the  rough  marble  into  heavenly  sculpture.  It  gives 
to  unheeded  truth  a  more  piercing  emphasis.  It 
strips  life  of  its  illusions  and  carries  the  soul  down 
into  the  region  of  reahty.  It  tames  the  will  and 
moderates  the  desires.  By  the  things  we  suffer  it 
teaches  obedience,  clears  the  eye  and  strengthens 
the  wing  of  faith,  reducing  us  to  a  childhke  submis- 
sion under  the  Father's  hand.  It  presses  upon  us  our 
share  in  the  struggle  between  good  and  evil,  and  in-  ■ 
terprets  to  us  the  dreadful  problem  which  hangs  so 
heavily  upon  the  world's  life.  It  suggests,  nay,  de- 
mands a  future  of  rest  as  the  sequel  to  the  present 


92  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

trial.  There  is  a  glimpse,  an  intimation,  of  immor- 
tality in  its  very  affinity  with  death.  Pain,  the 
dreadful,  vivid,  incomjjrehensible  fact.  It  is  no 
longer  the  blind  and  aimless  force  which  binds  hu- 
manity, like  another  Prometheus,  to  the  rock  of 
torture.  The  Word  of  God  gives  it  an  origin,  a 
use,  an  end  ;  with  every  look  of  agony,  every  wail 
of  grief  from  the  body  or  the  soul,  it  blends  the 
tones  of  heavenly  pity  and  spreads  over  them  the 
halo  of  divine  promise. 

Now,  these  general  aspects  of  the  subject  have 
been  considered,  only  the  better  to  prepare  the  way 
for  an  examination  of  some  points  ^vith  which  we 
are  often  required  to  deal  in  the  discharge  of  our 
pastoral  duty,  as  guides  and  consolers  of  the  trou- 
bled and  the  sorrowing. 

(3)  Of  all  the  forms  of  misery  that  can  come  upon 
mortals,  there  is  none  like  that  which  arises  from 
voluntary  and  conscious  sin.  Such  sin  leaves  no 
doubt  as  to  our  aecountabihty.  Our  own  personality 
•lies  at  its  core,  and  no  question  can  arise  as  to  the 
justice  of  the  pain,  whatever  it  be,  inflicted  upon 
us.  Ourselves  and  not  another  is  the  cause  of  our 
suffering.     If  we  yield  to  temptation  and  run  into 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  93 

evil  courses,  it  is  our  own  act.  "We  can  find  no  re- 
lief in  side  issues,  no  comfort  in  blaming  others. 
When  our  sin  finds  us  out,  we  must  face  it  and  own 
it  as  the  creature  of  our  own  making.  After  all 
abatements  and  palliations  have  been  pleaded,  an 
aroused  conscience  will  go  straight  to  its  work  and 
will  cry  out  :  "  Thou  art  the  man. "  Our  offences 
may  be  of  a  sort  that  will  intensify  hidden  remorse 
by  pubKc  disgrace,  and  stamp  upon  our  misery  the 
penalties  of  violated  law  and  the  rebukes  of  the 
honest  and  the  pure  with  whom  we  have  associated  ; 
or  they  may  be  secret,  and,  therefore,  known  only 
to  God.  The  guilt  of  the  latter  may  be  greater, 
though  the  punishment,  for  the  present,  may  be 
less.  The  state  of  mind  produced  by  these  personal 
gins  runs  all  the  way  from  passive  regrets  down  into 
piercing  grief.  Ui)on  the  blights  and  scars  and 
agonies  they  inflict  it  were  needless  to  dwell.  They 
have  been  described  almost  as  often  as  they  have 
been  experienced,  but  no  description  ever  given 
can  match  the  reality.  No  man  knows  how  dee]) 
and  wide  his  soul  is,  or  what  are  its  capabilities  of 
suffering,  until  he  has  grappled  with  evil  consciously 
taken  up  into  his  own  will,  and  there  melted  and 


94  Condones  ad  Clertim. 

coined  into  actual  wickedness  by  the  lieat  of  in- 
dulged passion.  No  man  knows,  too,  what  the 
keenest  pain  is  until  the  sense  of  guilt  clouds  and 
shakes  and  rends  him,  driving  peace  from  his  bor- 
ders, turning  all  sweets  into  bitterness,  and  all  hopes 
into  fears.  To  live  with  it  is  death,  to  run  away 
from  it  is  impossible.  No  wonder  that  the  world  is 
so  full  of  fever  and  unrest,  when  it  is  so  largely 
made  up  of  lives  thus  agitated  and  distressed. 

To  the  cry,  "  Why  art  thou  so  vexed,  O  my 
soul  !  and  why  art  thou  so  disquieted  within  me  ?"* 
the  only  answer,  among  all  that  can  be  given,  that 
goes  to  the  bottom  of  the  trouble,  is  that  which  de- 
clares, "  There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked. "t  Now,  of  those  thus  driven  and  tossed, 
some  will  seek  us,  but  more  will  have  to  be  sought 
by  us.  In  either  case,  our  symj)athy  and  pity,  how- 
ever freely  given,  can  do  little  more  than  remove 
the  barriers  to  a  frank  and  full  disclosure  of  the 
soul's  hurt.  The  priest  is  shut  up  to  one  way  of 
dealing  with  it.  He  is  allowed  no  discretion  as  to 
the  remedy  to  be  ap^Dlied,  or  as  to  the  peace  and 
comfort  which  he  is  authorized  to  j)romise.  He  acts 
*  Psalm  42  :  14.  f  Isaiah  57  :  21. 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  95 

not  in  his  own  name,  but  in  the  name  of  the  God 
of  all  peace  and  comfort,  and  as  the  representative 
of  Him  by  whose  mediation  alone  the  offender  can 
have  access  to  the  Father  of  mercies.  He  mnst, 
therefore,  with  as  few  preliminaries  and  as  httle  de- 
lay as  possible,  lead  the  bruised  and  heavy-laden 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  divine  scheme  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins.  Laying  aside  the  generalities  of 
pnlpit  speech,  and  with  them  a  good  deal  of  the 
knowledge  gained  by  routine  studies  in  theology, 
and  even  in  the  Scriptures,  and,  besides  these,  most 
of  the  technical  directions  and  rules  found  in  books 
on  personal  religion,  he  must  realize  how,  at  the 
first  approach  to  the  guilty  soul,  he  is  placed  at  the 
very  focus  on  which  converge  the  antagonizing 
forces  of  heaven  and  earth,  of  good  and  evil,  of  the 
cross  of  Christ  and  a  fallen  Immanity  ;  and  by  the 
sparks  of  fire  thrown  out  by  the  colliding  flint  and 
steel  he  must  shape  his  connsels.  Many  a  man  is 
wretched  because  of  his  guilt  who  has  not  taken 
the  first  step  toward  a  true  penitence.  The  instinct 
of  self-defence,  self-extenuation,  will  incline  him  to 
invent  excuses  and  apologies.  All  sin  in  general  is 
very  wicked,  but  his  sin  in  particular  is  not  very 


96  Condones  ad  Clerum, 

grievous  because  committed  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  trial.  He  was  sui*prised  ;  lie  was  taken 
at  the  weak  point  ;  lie  was  beguiled  bj  bad  influ- 
ences around  liim  ;  be  was  led  astray  by  vicious 
companions  ;  be  did  not  mean  to  tamper  witb  liis 
conscience  or  to  leave  tbe  door  open  to  the  enemy  ; 
the  evil  actually  done  is  so  mucb  greater  tban  be 
expected,  at  tbe  start,  tbat  be  cannot  account  for  it  ; 
one  step  followed  anotber  so  imperceptibly,  tbat 
none  alarmed  bim  or  summoned  liim  to  put  forth 
any  special  resistance  ;  bad  as  the  total  result  is,  no 
one  is  so  perplexed  and  amazed  at  it  as  himself  ; 
sorry  as  he  is  at  what  has  happened,-  it  cannot  be  as 
bad  as  it  seems  because  it  has  come  ujDon  him  in 
such  a  way,  and  the  only  palpable  and  disturbing 
experience  he  has  is  that  of  the  misery  which  it  has 
produced. 

Now,  in  such  a  case,  not  a  step  can  or  will  be 
taken  toward  the  comfort  of  forgiveness — tbe  only 
real  comfort  that  can  be  had,  until  all  this  special 
pleading  has  been  brushed  aside.  Such  a  man  must 
be  brought  to  see  bis  sin  as  it  is  in  itself  and  as 
God  sees  it,  and  not  merely  as  himself  may  regard 
it.     To  do  this,  tbe  priest  must  leave  nothing  un- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  97 

done.  He  mnst  work  on  until  lie  can  toncli  tlie 
mainspring  of  the  conscience,  and  let  loose  its  latent 
power  of  exposure  and  rebuke-  Alongside  of  it,  and 
as  serving  to  cut  away  all  obstructions  to  its  verdict, 
lie  must  put  the  violated  law  of  God,  speaking  by 
its  spirit,  not  its  letter  ;  and  to  both  must  be  added, 
as  the  final  power  of  appeal  and  conviction,  God's 
hatred  of  all  sin,  as  exhibited  not  only  in  his  deal- 
ings with  men,  but  above  all  in  that  most  awful 
event  in  human  history — the  passion  and  death  on 
the  Cross  of  His  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ. 
If  none,  nor  all  of  these  combined,  create  in  the 
offender's  heart  a  moving,  melting  sense  of  the 
enormity  of  his  sin,  the  case,  for  the  present,  is 
closed  ;  or,  if  continued,  continued  only  by  ]3rayer 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  will  do  for  it  what  He  prom- 
ises to  do  for  all  who  are  dead  in  their  trespasses 
and  sins.  But  assuming  that  faith  has  begun  to 
work,  and  that  some  adequate  sense  of  the  power, 
the  guilt,  the  penalty  of  sin  has  been  awakened  by 
these  means,  then  will  follow  the  several  parts  of  a 
true  repentance — confession,  contrition,  satisfac- 
tion, upon  the  details  of  which  I  need  not  dwell 
further 'than  to  remark  :  (1)  That  if  the  confession 


98  Condones  ad  Clc7^2im. 

made  to  God  do  not  pacify  the  penitent,  tlien  let 
him  be  moved  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  priest  to 
help  in  lifting  the  burden  from  his  soul,  opening 
np  to  him,  as  Christ's  depnty,  tlie  hurt  and  griev- 
ance under  which  he  mourns  ;  (2)  That  the  teach- 
ing and  direction  shall  be  clear  and  positive,  as 
upon  all  the  parts  involved,  so  especially  upon  the 
duties  of  reparation  for  wrongs  done  and  of  amend- 
ment of  life — the  most  difficult  among  the  fruits 
of  repentance,  and  therefore  the  most  likely  to  be 
slurred  or  postponed. 

The  popular  religion  of  the  time  treats  thinly  and 
lamely  many  things  in  the  Christian  life,  but  none, 
I  think,  so  much  so  as  the  subject  of  repentance. 
It  is  a  subject  especially  attractive  to  the  average 
religious  teacher,  because  it  is  so  full  of  emotional 
experience  and  abounds  in  frames  and  agitations 
and  tears.  But  these  ordinarily  may  be  left  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  if  we  can  be  sure  of  the  ripened 
fruit  in  the  shape  of  restitution  and  amendment. 
These  are  reached,  in  some  cases,  only  through  pro- 
foundly disturbing  exercises  of  the  soul,  and,  in 
others,  through  comparatively  little  outwardly- man- 
ifested feeling.     It  matters  little  whether  the  emo- 


The  Cure  of  Sotils.  99 

tion  involved  be  mucli  or  little,  provided  the  result 
be  reached.  But  the  requirements  of  faith  and  re- 
pentance having  been  met,  equal  attention  must  be 
given  to  the  divine  method  for  conveying  and  sealing 
forgiveness  v^'itli  its  peace  and  comfort,  by  the  one 
Baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  then  for 
the  deepening  and  strengthening  of  tliese  gifts  by 
the  grace  of  Confirmation,  and  then  still  further 
on,  for  their  perj^etual  nourishment  and  growth  by 
the  Sacrament  of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  and  yet 
further,  for  the  continuous  development  of  those 
graces  of  the  new  life  which,  as  evident  tokens  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  indwelling  presence,  yield  the 
peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  and  with  it  the 
highest  joy,  the  sweetest  comfort  of  the  saints.* 

(4)  But  when  the  guilt  of  sin  has  been  par- 
doned, and  its  penalty  remitted,  and  the  bitter  sor- 
row of  it  done  away,  some  of  its  consequences  still 

*  The  treatmeut  of  sin  after  baptism  is  involved  in  the  dis- 
cipline apjjlicable  to  the  Christian  penitent.  Ordinarily,  this 
discipline  is  part  of  the  required  preparation  for  the  Holy 
Communion,  in  which,  by  Christ's  own  appointment,  all  who 
turn  unto  him,  at  any  stage  of  the  Christian  life,  with  hearty 
repentance  and  true  faith,  are  assured  of  the  remission  of  their 
sins. 


lOO  Condones  ad  Clertnn. 

remain  to  trouble  us.  The  scars  are  left  tliougli 
the  wounds  are  healed.  There  are  traces  of  the  for- 
mer darkness  amid  the  radiance  of  the  present  light. 
The  ground-swell  continues  after  the  Master  has 
said  to  the  upheaved  waters,  "  Peace,  be  still." 
The  soul  still  mourns  over  what  God  has  forgiven, 
but  what  itself  cannot  forget.  A  chill  and  a  sha- 
dow fall  upon  it  from  even  the  memory  of  past 
lapses  and  punishments.  And  as  for  the  body,  how 
often  that  carries  with  it  to  the  grave  the  cuts  and 
bruises,  the  aches  and  tribulations  of  vices  long  since 
forsaken  and  appetites  long  ago  brought  into  cap- 
tivity to  Christ,  These  need  sometimes  all  the 
comfort  within  our  power  to  give,  and  God  has  not 
left  his  priests  ^vithout  direction  how  to  give  it. 

Sj^eaking  under  the  dispensation  of  His  grace, 
we  are  authorized  to  declare  in  all  such  cases  that 
the  consequences  of  repented  and  forgiven  sin,  how- 
ever they  may  run  on  into  after  years,  are  not  to  be 
regarded  as  penal  inflictions  of  Divine  justice. 
What  would  have  been  punishment  is  translated  by 
God's  mercy  into  chastisement.  The  present  pain 
is  no  longer  the  evidence  of  His  wrath  against  sin, 
but  is  chano;ed  into  the  token  of  His  love  for  the 


The  C7L7^e  of  Souls.  loi 

ransomed  and  pardoned  sinner.  Whereas,  before, 
every  throb  of  anguish  carried  with  it  a  correspond- 
ing pang  of  remorse,  now  it  dies  away  into  the 
healing  bahn  of  a  disciphne  which  purifies  while  it 
admonishes,  and  lifts  the  soul  nearer  heaven  by  the 
very  burden  which  it  carries.  Thus  jjeace  is  born 
of  trouble,  and  rest  issues  from  tumult  and  vexa- 
tion, and  so  the  Psalmist's  words  come  true,  "  It 
is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been  troubled,  that  I 
may  learn  thy  statutes."* 

(5)  But  this  question  cannot  be  considered  apart 
from  a  larger  one  with  which  we  are  often  called 
to  deal  as  ministers  of  consolation.  There  are  those 
who  have  not  been  required  to  pass  through  the 
bitter  experience  of  the  openly  wicked,  the  avow- 
edly impm'e,  whose  lives  have  been  soiled  and 
stained  by  sins  which  only  tears  and  agonies  as  well 
as  God's  mercy  could  wash  away  ;  and  yet  who  are 
burdened  and  pained  by  consequences  entailed  upon 
them  by  the  offences  of  others,  whether  living  or 
dead.  They  have  from  the  beginning  striven  for 
innocency  of  Hfe,  done  justly,  and  walked  humbly 
with  God,  and  yet  they  bear  with  them,  and  will 
*  Psalm  119  :  71. 


I02  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

do  so  to  the  end,  the  deep  furrows  cut  into  soul  and 
body  by  tlie  vices  of  those  gone  before.  Their  suf- 
ferinej  is  not  of  tlieir  own  creation.  Their  wills 
and  consciences  hav^e  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
causes  of  it.  The  child  is  stung  and  poisoned  by 
the  father's  crime.  Each  generation  runs  its  course 
and  passes  away,  but  not  without  drawing  those 
that  follow  it  into  the  lurid,  blighting  shadow  cast 
into  the  future  by  its  wrongs  and  corruptions. 
There  is,  there  can  be,  no  sharper  trial  of  our  faith 
in  the  justice,  to  say  nothing  of  the  love,  of  God, 
than  that  springing  from  this  dreadful,  often  crush- 
ing, experience.  Can  it  be  true,  cries  the  soul,  out 
of  the  depth  of  its  perplexity  and  from  the  midst 
of  sufferings  which  it  feels  that  it  does  not  deser^^e, 
that  I  am  to  be  broken  on  the  wheel  or  cast  into 
the  furnace  for  another's  sin  ?  Can  it  be  that  a  God 
of  love  obliges  the  innocent  to  bear  the  punishment 
of  the  guilty  ?  Why  all  this  inherited  wreck  and 
ruin,  pain  and  tribulation,  conflict  and  anarchy  ? 
How  have  these  links  been  dropped  in  the  chain  of 
moral  justice,  or  these  clouds  crept  over  the  sun  of 
righteousness  ?  Has  God  forgotten,  or  is  He  pow- 
erless  to   do   right,    or  has   the   world   staggered 


The  Ciire  of  Souls.  103 

blindly,  under  some  fatal  blow,  from  its  proper  or- 
bit ?  These  and  like  cries  for  liglit  and  comfort 
rise  every  day  from  countless  scenes  of  trial,  from 
pain-pierced  bodies  and  stricken  bearts.  Eyes 
wet  with  tears  weep  tbem,  lips  livid  with  grief  re- 
peat them,  and  the  vexed  and  weary  world,  on  all 
sides,  takes  up  the  sad  refrain  in  audible  sobs  of 
anguish.  Doubt,  mystery,  difficulty  rise  like  walls 
of  flint  around  this  problem  as  it  appears  to  unas- 
sisted nature.  Faith  gives  the  clue,  which  reason 
cannot,  to  its  solution.  The  God  of  Revelation, 
sjDcaking  by  the  incarnate  Christ,  takes  us  by  the 
hand  and  leads  us  out  of  the  darkness.  He  assures 
us  of  certain  things  which  we  are  to  receive  as  facts, 
however  difficult  it  may  be  to  a23ply  them  to  indi- 
vidual cases.  He  does  not  absolutely  dispel  the 
mystery  of  His  government,  but  He  kindles  light 
enough  to  enable  us  to  draw  comfort  from  what  we 
can  understand  and  to  be  patient  until  what  is  hid- 
den shall  be  cleared  up. 

{a)  God  is  just  and  true  in  all  His  ways.  He  is 
a  God  of  justice,  because  He  is  a  God  of  love,  and 
the  two  attributes,  however  they  may  seem  to 
work  aj)art  or  to  antagonize,  must  be  coincident 
aiid  issue  in  harmonv  of  action  and  result. 


I04  Condones  ad  Clci^um. 

(h)  This  present  life  is  only  a  beginning  and  a 
preparation.  It  is  a  school  in  which  only  the  ru- 
diments of  knowledge  are  tanght,  and  the  element- 
ary conditions  and  forms  of  discij^line  are  enforced. 
The  evil  of  to-day  may  become  the  good  of  the 
hereafter.  The  suffering  that  now  seemeth  griev- 
ous can  be  so  inflicted  and  so  borne  as  to  be  the 
seed-wheat  of  a  harvest  of  happiness  and  glory  be- 
yond. 

(c)  All  evil  is  traceable  to  fallen  wills  and  all 
pain  is  the  fruit  of  sin  committed  somewhere  along 
the  tortuous  line  of  the  will-power  of  the  creature. 
In  the  distribution  among  individuals  of  the  vast 
dividend  representing  the  wages  of  sin,  God  has 
other  ends  to  serve  than  that  of  judicial  punish- 
ment. He  admonishes  and  warns,  corrects  and 
amends,  chastens  and  purifies,  weans  us  from  the 
world,  and  lifts  us  up  to  the  plane  of  the  powers  of 
an  endless  life,  teaches  man  the  tremendous  conse- 
quences of  wickedness  by  the  suffering  it  entails,  and 
publishes  His  own  holiness,  as  well  by  the  chastise- 
ments of  the  good  as  by  the  punishments  of  the  bad. 

(d)  No  man  liveth  that  sinneth  not,  and  hence  no 
man  liveth  who  can  positively  affirm  that  there  is  no 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  105 

ground  of  reason  and  justice  in  himself  for  the  in- 
fliction of  penalty.  God  sees  life  as  it  is  ;  man  sees 
it  only  as  it  appears  to  his  own  more  or  less  igno- 
rant and  always  fallible  judgment.  When  we  say 
that  such  and  such  visitations  are  unmerited,  that 
we  are  victims  to  others'  faults  and  crimes,  that  we 
seem  to  be  singled  out  especially  as  targets  for  the 
arrows  of  affliction,  that  our  innocence,  not  less  than 
others'  guilt,  invites  the  hailstones  and  coals  of  fire, 
it  would  be  wise  to  pause  and  ask  whether  we  are 
sure  that  we  are  so  innocent,  so  meritorious,  so 
blameless  in  thought,  word,  and  deed,  as  to  make  it 
certain  that  we  in  no  degree  deserve  what  we  get. 
God  acts  upon  His  own,  not  our  laiowledge  and 
judgment ;  He  takes  in  the  whole  case,  we  never 
more  than  a  part  ;  we  compare  ourselves  with  those 
who  seem  to  be  worse.  He  compares  us  with  those 
whom  He  knows  to  be  better  ;  we  are  always 
tempted  to  clip,  bit  by  bit,  from  our  responsibiHty, 
He  holds  it  fast  in  its  integrity.  It  may  be  true, 
that  to  serve  God's  purposes,  wliich  embrace  the 
eternal  as  well  as  the  temporal,  we  suffer  more  than 
we  deserve,  but  it  is  never  true  that  any  and  all 
suffering  is  absolutely  unjust  because  absolutely  un- 


io6  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

deserved.  He  alone  can  determine  and  apportion 
wliat  belongs  to  ns  as  penalty  and  what  is  needful 
to  us  merely  as  warning  and  correction  ;  and,  if 
He  be  a  righteous  God,  we  must  beheve  that  He 
does  it  righteously. 

{e)  Ko  temporal  evil  is  simply  and  de  toto  gen- 
ere  a  punishment.  To  make  it  so  three  things  are 
required  :  a,  That  it  be  painful  and  grievous  to 
suffer  ;  h,  that  it  be  inflicted  for  some  fault  ;  c, 
that  it  be  involuntary  and  against  the  sufferer's 
will.  ' '  That, ' '  says  Bishop  Sanderson,*  ' '  which  has 
but  the  first  of  these  three  conditions  may  be  called 
a  kind  of  punishment  ;  but  properly,  that  evil  only 
is  a  punishment  wherein  the  whole  three  conditions 
concur.  Now,  temporal  evils,  though  they  have  the 
first  two  conditions,  all  of  them  being  grievous  to 
suffer,  all  of  them  being  inflicted  for  sin,  yet  in 
the  third  condition  they  fail,  because  they  are  not 
involuntary  simply,  and  perpetually,  and  de  suo 
genere  (to  omit  also  a  kind  of  failing  also  in  the  seo- 
ond  condition  ;  not  but  that  they  are  ever  inflicted 
for  some  sin  deserving  them,  but  for  that  there  are 
withal  other  ends  or  reasons  for  which  they  are  in- 
*  Third  Sermon,  "  Ad  Populum." 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  107 

flicted,  and  whereimto  tliey  are  intended,  hesides 
and  above  the  punishment  of  the  offence).  It  may 
not  be  gainsaid,  indeed,  bnt  these  things  are  invol- 
untary sometimes  in  the  particular,  and  especially 
to  some  men,  even  the  least  of  them  ;  but  simi)ly 
and  universally  such  they  are  not  ;  since  by  some 
other  men  the  greatest  of  them  are  willingly  and 
cheerfully  not  only  suffered^  but  desired.  It  must 
needs  be  some  grief  to  the  merchant  to  see  his 
rich  lading  cast  overboard,  and  to  the  patient  to 
have  an  old  festered  sore  scorched  and  singed  ;  so 
to  the  Christian  to  have  God's  correcting  hand  He 
heavy  upon  him  in  some  temporal  affliction.  The 
Apostle  telleth  us  plainly,  '  No  ajfUction  for  the 
present  is  joyous,  hut  grievous. '  But  involuntary 
it  is  no  more  in  him  than  those  other  things  are  in 
them.  .  .  .  The  Christian,  though  these  tem- 
poral evils  somewhat  trouble  him,  yet  he  is  willing 
to  them  and  cheerful  under  them,  and  he  acknowl- 
edgeth  God's  goodness  in  them,  and  returneth  Him 
thanks  for  them  ;  because  he  knoweth  they  are 
sent  for  his  future  good,  and  that  they  will  at  the 
last  '  yield  him  the  peaceahle  fruit  of  righteous- 
ness,''  when  he  shall  have  been  sufficiently   exer- 


io8  Conciojtes  ad  Cler^im. 

cised  thereby.  See  Peter  and  John  rejoicing  when 
they  suffered  for  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  St.  Paul 
so  far  from  fearing,  that  he  longed  after  his  disso- 
lution ;  and  the  blessed  martyrs  running  to  a  fag- 
ot as  to  a  feast.  Yerily,  God's  children  see 
great  good  in  these  things,  which  others  account 
evils,  and  therefore  they  take  them  not  as  bare 
punishments  sent  to  afflict  them,  but  as  glorious 
trials  to  exercise  them,  as  gracious  corrections  to 
humble  them,  as  precious  receipts  to  purge  and  re- 
store and  strengthen  them." 

And  still  farther,  touching  the  difficult  question 
raised  by  the  second  commandment,  "  There  is  no 
question  de facto,  but  so  it  is,  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
are  visited  upon  the  children  ;  but  de  jure,  with 
what  right  and  equity  are  they  so  visited  ?  First, 
the  punishments  inflicted  are  temporal  and  out- 
ward, not  spiritual  and  eternal  ;  secondly,  when 
they  are  inflicted  de  jure,  it  is  because  the  children 
tread  in  their  father's  steps  and  continue  in  their 
sins,  being  drawn  thereto  by  nature,  example,  and 
education  ;  thirdly,  the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  vis- 
ited upon  the  children  sometimes  as  possessors  of 
something   w^hich   their   fathers    left    them,    with 


TJie  Czire  of  Souls.  109 

God's  curse  cleaving  unto  it.  Finally,  when  tlie 
children  are  punished  for  the  father's  sins,  or  in- 
definitely any  one  man  for  the  sins  of  any  other 
man,  it  ought  to  be  imputed  to  those  sins  of  the 
fathers  or  others,  Hot  as  the  causes  properly  deserv- 
ing them,  but  only  as  occasioning  those  punish- 
ments. ' ' 

Dr.  Mozley  has  brought  out  with  great  clearness 
and  unanswerable  logic  the  two  sides  of  the  second 
commandment — the  one  judicial,  the  other  didac- 
tic 1  the  one  a  "ruling  idea  in  early  ages,"  the 
other  the  result  of  a  clearer  insight  into  God's  nat- 
ural i^rovidence  ;  the  one  implicating  the  children  in 
their  father's  guilt  and  punishing  them  for  it,  the 
other  affirming  that  the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  the 
occasion,  as  Bishop  Sanderson  puts  it,  of  misfor- 
time  to  the  children,  but  denying  that,  in  the  Ht- 
eral  sense,  the  misfortune  is  merited  by  the  chil- 
dren on  account  of  those  sins.  The  latter  view  did 
not  wait  for  the  Gospel,  working  through  a  more 
enlightened  moral  sense,  to  enforce  it.  No  writer 
of  to-day  could  pat  it  more  strongly  than  did  the 
Prophet  Ezekiel.*  As  Canon  Mozley  says  :  "As 
*  Ezekiel  18  : 2. 


1 1  o  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 

the  law  of  Sinai  worked  in  men's  minds,  it  gradually 
developed  the  deeper  parts  of  his  moral  nature, 
and  the  individuality  of  the  human  being  came  out 
in  its  true  form  and  with  its  true  moral  conse- 
quences. The  law  of  the  second  commandment 
2)roves  to  be  a  law  of  God's  natural  providence,  but 
no  judicial  law.  We  recite  it  in  our  cl lurches  now, 
but  we  take  it  in  a  sense  which  satisfies  the  terms  of 
it,  viz.,  the  physical  consequences,  which,  W'hile 
they  do  not  prove  desert,  still  answer  important 
didactic  pm-poses.  ...  Its  law  of  visitation 
of  sins  is  regarded  as  sufficiently  fulfilled  if  God 
does  so  connect,  i.e.^  as  cause  and  efi^ect,  sin  with 
misery  for  any  wise  purpose — any  purpose  wdiich 
is  instructive,  though  not  implying  anything  judi- 
cial. .  .  .  The  course  of  things  in  this 
world  is  a  great  teacher.  And  among  the  modes 
of  teaching,  one  is  the  sight  of  the  ruinous  effects 
of  men's  sins  upon  the  condition  of  their  families 
and  posterity.  The  sin  is  thus  held  up  to  the  world 
with  a  mark  upon  it,  it  is  made  to  fasten  on  men's 
eyes,  and  it  is  kept  up  in  recollection  when  other- 
wise it  might  be  forgotten.  Providence,  if  we  may 
use  the  expression,  cannot  afford  to  dispense  wdth 


The  Ctcre  of  Souls.  1 1 1 

the  ordinary  weapons  of  instruction  which  chain  the 
attention  of  mankind  to  the  consequences  of  sin, 
thus  putting  the  stamp  of  evil  upon  it,  exhibiting 
it  to  the  world  in  a  fearful  and  formidable  light, 
and  converting  it  into  a  lasting  spectacle  of  disaster 
and  sadness  before  men's  eyes.  The  fact  that  sin 
continues  in  its  effects  long  after  the  act  itself  is  di- 
dactic and  creates  a  deep  image  in  men's  minds."* 
(6)  But  all  this  is  only  part  of  the  general  subject, 
and  we  cannot  leave  it  without  passing  out;  into  a 
wider  circle  of  thought.  Good  men  are  grieved 
and  perplexed  not  only  because  of  God's  mysterious 
method  of  working  out  the  punishment  and  suffer- 
ing of  sin  among  their  posterities,  but  still  more, 
if  possible,  by  that  order  of  the  world  which  allows 
the  wicked  to  prosper  and  the  righteous  to  be 
afflicted,  despoiled,  and  trodden  down.  From  the 
lips  of  what  holy  man  has  not  the  cry  gone  up  at 
sundry  times,  "  How  long  shall  the  wicked  tri- 
umph ?"  How  long  shall  evil  have  the  uj^per  hand 
and  apparently  rule  the  world  ?  How  long  will  it  be 
true  that  "  God  shall  order  a  good  man's  going  and 
make  his  way  acceptable  to  himself,"  yet  permit 
*  Mozley's  "  Ruling  Ideas,"  pp.  114-118.  ' 


112  Condones  ad  Clertmu 

the  same  good  man  to  live  in  tlie  shadow  and  be 
cursed  by  the  boastful  pride  and  insolent  contempt 
of  the  bad  man  ?  How  long  shall  impiety  be  re- 
warded and  godliness  be  at  a  discount  ? 

"  It  was  a  stumbling-block  to  the  heathen  to  see 
good  men  oppressed  and  vice  prosper  ;  it  made 
them  doubt,  some  whether  there  be  a  God  or  no  ; 
others,  nothing  better,  whether  a  providence  or  no. 
But  what  marvel  if  they  stumbled  who  had  no  right 
knowledge  either  of  God  or  of  His  providence, 
when  Job,  and  David,  and  other  dear  children  of 
God  have  been  much  puzzled  with  it.  David  con- 
f esseth  in  Psalm  73  that  His  feet  had  well-nigh 
slipped  when  he  saw  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  ; 
and  certainly  down  he  had  been,  had  he  not  happily 
stepped  '  into  the  sanctuary  of  Ood,  and  there 
understood  the  end  of  these  men.''  "*  It  was  true 
that  he  opened  the  37th  Psalm  with  the  exhorta- 
tion, ^^  Fret  not  thyself  hecause  of  the  ungodly, 
neither  he  thou  envious  against  the  evil-doers  ^''^ 
and  yet  in  the  73d  he  tells  us  how  he  was  grieved 
"  hecause  they  come  in  no  misfortxine  like  other  folk, 
neither  are  they 'plaguedlike  other  men y  "  Wliile 
*  Bishop  Sanderson,  Sermons,  p.  317. 


The  Cure  of  SotUs.  113 

all  the  day  lojig  have  I  been  punished,  and  chastened 
every  inorning. 

David's  feeling  was  natural  and  irrepressible  ;  and 
this  feeling  ig  as  mucli  so  now  as  when  he  wrote  these 
words.  It  sways  11s  more  or  less  at  all  times  ;  and  when 
things  go  wrong  about  us,  and  our  plans  are  brought 
to  naught,  or  when  we  are  smarting  under  injustice 
or  adversity— the  arrows  of  contrary  fortune  stick- 
ing fast  in  us — it  becomes  a  fruitful  source  of  dis- 
turbing tempers  in  the  soul  and  even  of  rash  and 
wayward  acts  in  external  conduct.  Some  minds 
are  so  affected  by  it  as,  when  the  shadows  lie  heavy 
upon  them,  to  be  led  off,  first,  into  doubt,  then 
into  despair,  and  finall}'  into  a  passive,  fatahstic  ac- 
quiescence in  what  cannot  be  helped,  thus  convert- 
ing life  into  a  riddle  which  cannot  be  solved  or  into 
a  bm'den  to  \)e  borne  hopelessly  to  the  end.  Others, 
again,  are  simply  soured  and  exasperated  by  it,  drift- 
ing away  gradually  into  the  mo^ds  of  hate  and  re- 
taliation, or,  wearying  of  these,  into  a  settled  mel- 
ancholy that  contents  itself  with  a  sentimental 
brooding  over  what  there  is  no  longer  strength  or 
inchnation  to  resist.  Minds  of  either  sort  are  pecu- 
liarly open  to  the  more  subtle  objections  to  Chris- 


1 1 4  Condones  ad  Clcriim. 

tianity,  as  urged  by  tlie  philosophical  sentimentalism 
or  philosojDhical  scepticism  of  the  time.  I^ either 
theory  may  have  any  relief  to  offer,  but  their  pur- 
pose will  be  answered,  if  they  can  persuade  such 
jDersons  to  beheve  that  what  they  fail  to  do  cannot 
be  done  by  the  Christian  religion.  As  well,  then, 
for  the  sake  of  the  sympathy  and  comfort  craved 
by  minds  so  troubled,  as  for  the  sake  of  rescuing 
them  from  divers  temptations,  assailing  them  from 
the  stand-point  of  free  thought  on  the  problems  of 
human  life  and  the  world's  vexed  order,  shouLi  the 
pastorate  do  all  within  its  power  to  give  them  what 
they  need.  Christianity  is  here  to  console  men  un- 
der their  troubles,  as  well  as  to  enlighten  them 
upon  the  origin  and  end  of  those  troubles.  It  has 
consolation  to  offer  on  this  subject,  and  we  should 
make  it  our  duty  to  show  men  how  to  find  it.  This 
is  no  easy  task.  The  higher  class  of  minds  to  be 
dealt  with  will  not  be  put  off  with  stereotyped  ex- 
hortations to  patience  and  resignation,  or  with  the 
platitudes  of  a  wordy  sympathy.  The  matters 
that  perplex  and  distress  them  are  facts — stem, 
gloomy,  depressing  facts  ;  and  explanations  and  as- 
surances, if  attempted,  must  rest  on  solid  ground 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  1 1 5 

and  address  reason  and  conscience  as  well  as  faith. 
Wlien  a  soul  is  full  of  unrest,  a  very  fever  raging  in 
tlie  blood,  it  is  idle  to  say,  "  Be  quiet,"  unless  you 
have  a  remedy  at  hand  that  will  help  it  to  be  so. 

Now,  it  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  only  wide  and 
deep  and  most  earnest  and  thoughtful  studies  of  the 
genius,  not  less  than  the  onission  of  Christianity,  can 
qualify  any  guide  of  souls  to  do  this  kind  of  work 
successfully.  Many  a  one  has  gone  through  the 
customary  curriculum  in  theology,  and  yet  found 
himself,  when  tried,  a  mere  child  in  this  business, 
and  for  the  reason,  in  part,  that  he  has  given  his 
time  and  labor  to  the  formulated  doctrines  rather 
than  to  the  ethical  spirit  of  the  faith.  The 
doctrines  present  God  as  an  object  of  contem- 
plation— as  He  is  in  His  being  and  attributes,  His 
registered  decrees  and  methods  ;  the  ethics  oblige 
us  to  watch  as  well  as  to  think  of  Him  standing 
out,  as  it  were,  from  the  background  of  eternity  as 
the  personal  Governor  of  the  universe,  moving  upon 
and  moving  through  created  and  yet  free  wills,  di- 
recting events  in  liistory,  presiding  over  the  life- 
plan  of  every  human  being,  holding  in  His  hand 
every  thread  in  the  tangled  web  of  earthly  affairs, 


ii6  Condones  ad  Cle7^tLm. 

and  in  every  soul  the  scales  of  truth  and  falsehood, 
right  and  wrong.  If  Christianity  may  be  said  to 
have  any  philosophy,  that  philosophy  must  be  at 
our  command  unless  we  would  prove  ourselves  such 
counsellors  and  comforters  as  gathered  around  Job 
in  the  time  of  his  agony — their  arguments,  their 
consolations  serving  only  to  darken  the  mystery  and 
to  enhance  the  pain  of  his  afflictions. 

But  it  may  be  asked  by  some  who  have  had  no 
actual  experience  in  the  matter,  and  only  such  will 
ask  the  question,  why  sliould  it  be  difficult  to  deal 
with  such  cases  ?  What  sort  of  Christian  is  that 
who  neither  holds,  nor  can  find  the  clue  to  lead  him 
out  of  the  dark  labyrinth  ?  What  else  has  he  to  do, 
when  borne  down,  or  cornered,  or  pierced  and  la- 
cerated by  the  world's  disorder  and  injustice,  than  to 
fall  back  on  the  truths  which  he  professes  to  hold  ? 
It  is  one  thmg  for  the  surgeon  to  look  at  his  instru- 
ments lying  bright  and  keen  in  their  case,  and 
another  thing  to  use  them  as  they  were  meant  to  be 
used  on  the  bleeding,  fractured,  groaning  patient. 
It  is  one  thing  to  mano3uvre  an  army  on  parade  day, 
and  another  thing  to  do  it  on  the  battle-field  amid 
the  thunder  and  carnage  of  an  enemy's  guns.     So 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  i  r  7 

far  as  life's  troubles  go,  we  are  all  good  enougli 
Christians  until  tlie  troubles  are  actually  uj)on  us. 
Some  truths,  and  very  precious  ones,  we  have  seen 
dimly  ;  some  have  been  floating  in  brain  and  heart 
for  years,  perhaps,  only  as  solemn  phrases,  not  as 
solemn  realities  ;  others,  after  keeping  for  a  while 
at  the  forefront  of  our  thoughts,  have  droj^ped  away 
in  sleepy  vagueness,  as  the  bright  vapors  of  the  sun- 
set drop  below  the  evening  horizon — not  utterly 
vanished  or  dissolved,  but  no  longer  quite  visible. 
And  so  it  often  hap^^ens  that  they,  who  apparently 
know  the  most  about  their  faith,  turn  up  weakest  in 
their  faith  when  the  bitter  waters  of  ad\^ersity  are 
let  loose  upon  them.  Our  task  is  to  bring  believers 
to  act  under  trial  as  though  they  really  did  believe, 
to  help  them  to  see  clearly  and  to  apply  firmly  to  a 
present  grievance,  an  overwhelming  sorrow,  a  cruel 
injustice,  a  dark  wrong  to  themselves  or  to  others, 
the  faith  which,  as  a  creed,  they  have  been  reciting, 
and  it  may  be  teaching,  for  half  their  lives.  To 
adduce  and  examine  in  detail  all  tlie  helps  offered 
us  by  Christianity,  for  the  effective  performance  of 
this  task,  would  carry  me  beyond  the  limits  marked 
out  by  me  in  the  treatment  of  this  subject.     It  is 


1 1 8  Condones  ad  CIcriim. 

enough,  perhaps,  that  I  dwell  briefly  upon  the  sali- 
ent points,  leaving  the  rest  to  be  inferred. 

(1)  It  has  been  the  habit  of  the  morbid  schools 
of  poetry  and  philosophy  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  Holy  ScrijDtnres  could  really  teach  them  very 
little,  if  anything,  touching  that  side  of  the  world's 
life  from  which  the  evils  and  wrongs  and  sufferings 
of  mankind  emanate.  They  declare  that  the  Sacred 
"Writings  give  no  proper  answer  to  their  vehement 
protests  and  indignant  expostulations  against  the 
wreck  and  disorder  and  pain  produced  by  the  moral 
constitution  of  this  world.  They  rail  against  it  as  a 
hopeless  enigma  ;  they  attack  it  or  retreat  from  it 
as  a  scheme  of  blank  fatalism  that  grinds  on  with 
pitiless  persistency,  reducing  the  so-called  liberty 
of  human  wills  to  a  mockery  and  a  sham  ;  they 
draw  out  gloom  and  death  from  every  part  and  re- 
cess of  the  scheme,  and  then  and  tliere  parade  as  an 
object  of  pity  the  diseased  sensibility  begotten  of 
their  own  lop-sided  conceptions  and  angry  dissents. 
A  veiy  moderate  acquaintance  with  modern  litera- 
ture renders  needless  any  citation  of  particular  exam- 
ples to  prove  this.  The  Byrons  and  Shelleys  of 
the  last  generation  have  their  counterparts  to-day, 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  119 

thougli  not  quite  so  sardonic  and  bitterly  passionate 
as  they. 

Now,  while  it  is  a  weakness  in  any  Christian  be- 
liever to  be  influenced  in  such  a  matter  by  such 
men,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  many  believers  are, 
and  some  of  them  deeply.  They  allow  what  they 
have  learned  outside  the  pale  of  God's  truth  to 
shape  more  or  less  their  feeling  and  thinking  inside 
of  it. 

It  is  of  consequence,  then,  to  show,  to  begin 
with,  how  profoundly,  nay,  exhaustively,  the  Word 
of  God,  as  elsewhere,  so  especially  in  the  Book  of 
Job,  has  grappled  with,  turned  over  and  over  under 
every  possible  side-light,  our  human  sense  of  the  in- 
justice of  this  visible  order  of  things,  neither  deny- 
ing nor  evading  anything  that  can  be  truly  said 
about  it.  The  Bible  handles  it  as  one  of  the  earliest 
of  man's  experiences.  It  did  so  far  back  in  the 
ages  long  before  Greek  or  Latin  thought  took  up  the 
dark  parable,  and  did  it  so  thoroughly  that  all  mod- 
ern handling,  however  stimulated  by  rasher  specu- 
lations, or  by  great  passions  set  on  fire  by  the  gi- 
gantic evils  incident  to  shaken  empires,  colliding 
civilizations,  and  vast  social  convulsions  at  the  close 


1 20  Condones  ad  Chrum. 

of  the  last  and  the  opening  of  the  present  century, 
has  added  nothing  new.  Whatever  the  difficulty, 
it  was  as  well  known  and  as  deeply  looked  into  by. 
tlie  old  patriarch  of  Iduniea  as  by  the  Sliakespeares 
and  Goethes  of  European  thought.  "  It  would 
seem  almost  as  if  it  were  the  intention  of  Scripture  to 
show  to  all  generations  of  mankind  how  thoroughly 
it  understood  this  vein  of  thought,  and,  however 
watchful  over  it,  felt  with  it  ;  and  how  it  was  re- 
solved to  leave  no  excuse  to  the  most  sensitive  to 
say  that  their  case  had  been  overlooked  and  unpro- 
vided for.  One  look  into  this  book  (Job)  should 
satisfy  the  most  vehement,  indignant,  melancholy 
natures  of  the  existence  of  a  religion  which  under- 
stands them,  and  would  direct  them  if  they  would 
let  it.  Scripture  is  beforehand  with  its  sympathy, 
anticipates  them  jDcrfectly,  reflects  their  keenest 
thoughts." 

It  is  certain,  then,  that  a  hand  from  without  has 
been  stretched  forth  to  lead  us  through  the  mazes 
of  an  evil  world,  dark  and  tangled  as  they  are,  tliat 
we  are  not  left  to  our  own  conjectures  and  imagin 
ings,  nor  even  to  our  own  moral  or  intellectual  rea- 
soning, nor  yet  to  the  fallible  judgments  of  the  tra- 


The  CiLve  of  So7ils.  121 

ditions  and  speculations  of  mankind  at  large.  A 
lig'lit  is  burning  at  the  heart  of  the  myster}",  and  that 
light  is  the  Word  of  Him  who  permits  the  mystery 
and  at  the  same  time  declares  that  it  shall  work  out 
an  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory  to  all  who 
love  and  trust  Him. 

(2)  We  now  and  then  meet  with  a  high-wi*ought 
religion,  a  lofty,  self- abnegating  piety — which,  in  its 
anxiety  to  vindicate  the  ways  of  God,  as  those  ways 
appear  in  the  constitution  and  order  of  the  world, 
is  disposed  to  question  the  integrity  and  purity  of 
the  sense  of  justice  in  human  nature  and  to  range 
under  the  head  of  distortions  and  exaggerations  of 
fact  much  of  the  wrong  which  the  average  man  be- 
lieves that  he  sees  in  the  government  of  the  world. 
Unable  to  account  for,  or  entirely  to  justify  things 
as  they  are,  it  takes  refuge  in  imputations  on  those 
instincts  of  justice  in  the  soul  which  are  as  truly 
the  ordinance  of  God  as  is  the  order  of  things  of 
which  they  take  cognizance — which  is  quite  as  "vvise 
as  it  would  be  to  try  to  disperse  tlie  darkness  by 
putting  out  the  eye  that  goes  up  and  down  search- 
ing for  the  light.  In  lieu  of  any  such  slight  put  on 
our  sense  of  justice,  let  every  guide  of  souls  insist 


122  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

rather  upon  its  worth  and  power.  However  it  may 
go  astray,  in  this  or  that  particular,  it  is,  after  all, 
the  unsilenced  and  unsilenceable  prophecy  and 
affirmation  in  man  of  the  perfect  righteousness 
which  God  has  pledged  Himself  to  establish  some- 
where in  the  coming  future.  It  is  more,  too,  than 
an  attribute  or  function  of  the  moral  reason.  It  not 
only  sees  and  judges,  rebukes  and  condemns,  but 
often  glows,  as  with  the  fire  of  a  sacred  passion, 
under  the  verdicts  which  itself  pronounces  or  be- 
lieves others  ought  to  pronounce.  It  yearns  to  see 
the  balance  struck  and  right  and  wrong,  wherever 
they  prevail,  get  their  due.  It  does  vastly  more 
than  express,  or,  under  challenge  and  doubt,  bear 
witness  to,  our  human  conception  of  right  and 
wrong.  For  not  seldom  it  ha23j)ens,  amid  those  sol- 
emn crises  in  history,  when  the  race,  no  longer 
willing  to  bear  the  yoke  imposed  by  bad  rulers,  or 
the  corruptions  rolled  up  out  of  the  unhealthy  ac- 
cretions of  the  past,  turns  over  like  a  giant  in  a  fe- 
ver— rending  and  crushing  everything  in  its  way — 
that,  then,  this  faculty,  sentiment,  instinct — call  it 
what  you  will — rises  to  the  grandeur  and  wields  the 
power  of  an  almost  divine  enthusiasm.      "  Such  is 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  123 

tliat  passion  for  justice  which,  sometimes  loftj, 
sometimes  trivial  in  its  subject-matter,  sometimes 
fearful  and  vehement,  sometimes  meek  and  patient, 
according  to  individual  character,  lives  on  in  the 
minds  of  men,  expecting  some  day  its  final  rest  and 
fulfilment,  and  ever  pressing  toward  it.  Scrip- 
ture apjDeals  to  it  throughout,  and  represents  the 
world,  with  that  whole  course  of  events  which 
forms  its  history,  and  all  the  exhibition  of  character 
which  has  taken  place  in  it,  as  tending  like  some 
drama,  or  some  trial,  to  a  great  judicial  issue  at  the 
day  of  judgment." 

But  in  marking  out  the  sphere  and  setting  forth 
the  riglitful  ofiice  of  this  sentiment,  we  must  be 
careful  to  insist  upon  the  distinction  so  clearly 
stated  in  Bishop  Butler's  Analogy.  In  treating  of 
the  moral  reason,  of  which  tliis  feeling  is  a  constitu- 
ent part,  he  allows  it  to  judge  of  morality,  but  not 
of  expediency  ;  that  is  (to  apply  the  principle  to 
the  case  in  hand),  to  pass  upon  the  justice  or  in- 
justice of  the  world's  order  as  we  see  it,  but  not 
upon  the  construction  of  the  whole  system,  which 
covers  eternity  as  well  as  time.  In  other  words,  it 
may  and  it  is  bound  to  judge  of  the  present  fact  of 


1 24  Condones  ad  Clernin. 

evil  and  misery  as  the  result  of  that  system  in  time, 
"  But  it  is  not  competent  to  take  in  the  whole  of  it 
in  itself,  or  in  its  ultimate  consequences,  and  there- 
fore not  competent  to  criticise  it  as  a  whole. ' '  Other- 
wise, it  might  claim,  "  That  all  creatures  should  at 
lirst  be  made  as  perfect  and  as  hapjjy  as  they  were 
capable  of  ever  being,  and  that  nothing  of  hazard  or 
danger  should  be  j)ut  upon  them. "  But  to  demand 
this  would  be  to  demand  the  utter  abrogation  of  all 
moral  ]3robation,  with  its  liberty  and  risk,  i.  e.,  the 
repeal  of  that  constitution  of  the  moral  world  which 
God,  in  His  perfect  wisdom,  has  seen  fit  to  estab- 
lish. While  it  is  true,  then,  that  man  may  judge 
moral  facts  as  they  occur,  it  is  also  true  that  he  can- 
not determine  what  is  for  the  best  in  the  long  run. 

(3)  Now,  alongside  the  fact  that  tins  love  of  jus- 
tice is  an  essential  part  of  human  nature,  is  the  twin 
fact  that  the  world,  at  many  points  and  on  the  most 
serious  matters,  crosses  and  annoys  that  love,  now  and 
then  baffles  it,  tramples  upon  it,  utterly  crushes  it. 
So  often,  indeed,  does  this  happen  that  some,  in  their 
despair  and  anguish,  are  led  to  l)e]ieve  that  wrong  is 
the  rule  and  right  the  exception,  and  so  that  the 
world's  order  has  been   framed  in   the  intei'est  of 


The   Cure  of  Soidsr  125 

injustice.  Now,  leavinc^  out  of  view  what  the  next 
world  will  have  to  say  about  it,  it  is  for  us  to  do 
what  we  can  to  save  souls  from  so  gloomy  and  dis- 
tressing a  creed  of  evil,  by  showing  them  that,  bad 
as  things  are,  the  system  of  this  world,  on  the 
whole,  favors  the  good  as  regards  happiness  and  sat- 
isfaction in  life,  tends  to  eliminate  wickedness  and 
promote  righteousness,  and  gives  ample  proof  that 
all,  or  even  the  greater  part,  of  the  vindications  of 
truth,  justice,  and  purity  are  not  reserved  for  the 
world  to  come.  Evil  no  sooner  starts  in  its  career 
than  retribution  fastens  upon  it.  The  will  of  man 
no  sooner  signs  a  covenant  with  hell  than  remorse 
• — one  fonn  of  retribution — begins  to  gnaw  at  its 
core.  Sin  is  no  sooner  committed  than  it  begins  to 
give  the  sinner  notice  that  it  will  find  him  out. 
The  wicked,  beneath  what  seems  the  untroubled 
surface  of  their  lives,  carry  a  curse  in  their  bones 
and  a  plague  in  the  marrow  thereof.  Human  lan- 
guage is  full  of  maxims  and  instances  resting  on 
man's  instinctive  conviction  that  every  wrong  has 
its  avenger.  Even  the  Psalmist,  whose  "  treadings 
had  well-nigh  shj)ped, ' '  because  he  saw  "  the  ungod- 
ly in  such  prosperity,"  admits  that  the  time  came 


1 26  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

wlien  lie  saw  ' '  the  end  of  these  men, ' '  This  side 
of  the  world's  drift  is  touched  by  the  great  poet  of 
human  nature  with  his  wonted  power  : 

"  Innocent  blood, 
E'en  like  the  blood  of  Abel, 
Cries  from  the  tongueless  caverns  of  the  earth 
For  justice  and  rough  chastisement. ' ' 

But  the  law  of  retribution  applies  as  certainly  and 
universally  to  the  good  as  to  the  bad.  It  is  obscured 
by  many  false  lights  and  many  plausible  counter- 
facts,  but  it  asserts  itself  and  comes  more  clearly  to 
the  surface  as  our  observation  deepens,  and  so 
enables  us-  to  disengage  it  from  misleading  considera- 
tions. 

God  has  armed  all  virtue  with  an  astonishing  re- 
siliency toward  its  proper  orbit.  Sooner  or  later  it 
cleaves  its  way  through  the  incumbent  darkness, 
and  starting  from  its  own  bright  centre  travels  up 
into  the  noonday  light.  It  is  only  a  misreading  and 
perversion  of  history  that  sees 

"  Rightforever  on  the  scaffold — wrongforever  on  the  throne." 

Even  that  modern  school  that  can  find  no  place 
in  the  world  for  the  personahty  of  a  righteous  God 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  127 

is  obliged  to  admit  that  the  world's  constitution  ex- 
hibits, as  its  profoundest  and  surest  law,  a  certain 
all-embracing  "  tendency  to  righteousness." 

(4)  But  suppose  the  facts  were  other^vise,  suppose 
good  and  evil,  justice  and  injustice,  were,  for  the 
present,  locked  in  a  sort  of  death-struggle — the 
course  of  this  world  affording  little  or  no  indication 
as  to  the  side  on  which  victory  would  finally  settle — 
it  ought  not  very  seriously  to  disturb  the  inan  of 
faith.  His  comfort  is  that  liis  faith  obliges  him  to 
concern  himself,  in  the  last  resort,  only  with  the 
right  of  God's  administration  upon  the  whole  and 
eternally  ;  that  faith  cannot  be  overturned  by  what 
happens  here,  because  its  eyes  are  fixed  definitely 
upon  the  hereafter.  To  it  this  world  is  only  the 
fragment  of  a  larger  system,  the  most  of  which  is 
now  invisible.  What  is  "wrong  in  the  smaller  parts 
will  be  rectified  in  the  greater.  To  a  balanced 
Christian  what  occasion  is  there  for  vehemence  and 
excitement  ?  There  is  no  danger  ;  aU  is  safe  ;  a 
good  ultimate  issue  is  sure  and  has  only  to  be 
waited  for.  There  are  believers  who  find  no  com- 
fort in  their  Christianity  because  they  have  a  ner- 
vous dread  lest  somehow  God  will  totter  to  His  faU. 


128  Condones  ad  Clertim. 

and  His  magistracy  break  up  and  go  to  pieces 
under  tlie  assaults  of  evil.  Thej  are  excited  at  tlie 
first  news  of  any  case  of  injustice  and  oppression, 
and  tliey  clamor  for  punishment  on  the  spot,  as  if 
they  doubted  that  punishment  would  come  at  all  if  it 
did  not  come  now  and  as  the  lightnings  strike.  But 
such  is  not  the  true  temper  with  respect  to  w^liat 
ourselves  or  others  suffer.  We  can  afford  to  be 
calm  and  self-jjossessed  though  the  round  world  be 
shaken  by  the  powers  of  darkness,  because  we  are 
sure  of  the  issue.  Says  another:  "  Rational  justice 
is  a  sober  and  tempered  feeling,  allowing  time,  pre- 
aration,  and  trial  ;  introducing  its  operations  with 
preliminaries,  conducting  them  by  rule,  and  consum- 
mating them  w^itli  gravity.  And  Christian  justice 
is — more  than  sober  and  tempered — passive  and 
self-denying.  I^ow,  Christian  justice  assumes  its 
most  majestic  temper,  and  feels  the  strength  and  re- 
pose which  mathematical  science  and  logic  do  in 
their  respective  spheres  ;  a  strength  and  a  repose 
arising  from  clear-sightedness — the  certainty  that, 
as  the  problem  must  produce  its  demonstration,  the 
argument  its  conclusion,  so  a  moral  constitution  of 
things  must  issue  in  a  day  of  judgment.      Acting  . 


The  C^tre  of  Souls.  129 

in  the  highest  stage  of  character,  and  become  a 
quality  not  of  a  simply  y^^/m^,  or  of  a  simply  Ta- 
tional,  but  of  a  spiritual  nature,  it  imitates  the  tem- 
per of  Him  who,  seated  high  above  this  world  and 
all  its  movements,  and  strong  in  His  own  omnipo- 
tence, is  supreme  in  His  hatred  and  supreme  also  in 
His  toleration  of  evil  :  "  Who  maketh  His  sun  to 
shine  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain 
on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust  ;"  "  the  Lord  God, 
merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abundant 
in  goodness  and  truth  ;  keeping  mercy  for  thou- 
sands, forgiving  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin, 
and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty. ' ' 

Yeiily,  amid  the  tumult,  vexation,  doubt,  and 
sorrow  arising  from  this  visible,  present  order  of 
things,  God  has  committed  to  us.  His  ordained  ser- 
vants a  ministry  of  consolation  not  less  than  a  minis- 
try of  reconciliation.  And  the  fact  that  He  has 
done  so  is  not  more  sure  than  the  fact  that  goes 
with  it,  viz.,  that  in  the  new  dispensation  of  His 
love — even  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ — He  has 
given  us  all  grace  and  truth  necessary  to  make  it 
the  noblest  of  powers,  the  greatest  of  blessings. 

(Y.)  I  come  now  to  a  branch  of  the  subject  involv- 


130  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

ing  more  difficulties  and  imposing  a  lieavier  task 
upon  the  guide  of  souls  than  any  other.  If  our 
people  felt  free  to  approach  the  clergy,  and  to  open 
up  to  them  frankly  and  fully  their  hidden  troubles, 
there  would  be  general  astonishment  at  the  revela- 
tion that  would  be  made,  both  as  to  the  depth  and 
seriousness  of  the  tendency  to  doubt,  and  as  to  the 
number  of  minds  more  or  less  under  its  influence. 
The  common  atmosphere  is  full  of  it.  It  is  at  work 
in  individual  hearts,  producing  restlessness  and  anx- 
iety. It  crops  out  alarmingly  in  our  homes,  show- 
ing itself  in  the  questions  asked  by  the  young — 
questions  suggested  by  their  companions  or  brought 
away  from  the  Sunday  school — questions  started, 
but  not  answered,  in  the  pulpit.  It  creeps  stealth- 
ily, silently  through  our  parishes.  It  speaks  more 
freely  in  shops  and  counting-rooms  and  places  of 
popular  resort.  It  impinges  not  merely  on  the  out- 
works, but  on  the  citadel  of  the  faith  itself.  It 
does  not  formally  examine,  or  analyze,  or  argue  ; 
but  still  in  a  very  practical  way  it  courts,  not  de- 
clines, contact  with  issues  which  it  has  not  learning 
or  logic  enough,  far  less  faith  enough,  to  settle  ; 
and  yet  which  it  deals  with  just  enough  to  catch 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  1 3 1 

the  infection  of  secret  distrust.  In  our  congrega- 
tions we  know  not  liow  many  there  are,  who  quietly 
discount  much  that  the  preacher  says,  thro^\nng 
aside  this  or  that  utterance,  as  though  it  were  simply 
a  professional  dictum  which  consistency  obliged  him 
to  pronounce,  or  a  stray  fragment  of  the  Christian 
tradition,  which  had  passed  for  truth  only  because  no 
one  had  challenged  it.  While  the  preacher  is  ap- 
pealing to  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  there  are 
scores  in  the  pews  who  are  asking  :  How  about  the 
genuineness  of  the  Gospels  ?  How  about  the  moral 
difficulties  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  discrepan- 
cies of  texts  and  facts  in  the  New  ?  While  he  is 
taking  for  granted  the  divine  origin  and  organization 
of  the  Church,  they  are  revolving  the  doubt  as  to 
whether,  after  all,  it  be  anything  more  than  a  long- 
perpetuated  and  highly-dignified  voluntary  society. 
While  he  is  laboring  to  bring  his  hearers  up  to  high- 
er views  of  Sacramental  grace,  there  will  be  a  goodly 
minority  busy  at  the  question  whether  it  is  possible 
that  God  could,  or,  likely  that  He  would  convey 
supernatural  influence  through  water,  and  bread  and 
wine,  or  by  the  laying  on  of  hands.  And,  observe, 
I  am  not  alluding  to  a  class  who  are  intentionally 


132  Condones  ad  Clcru^n. 

captious,  who  are  inclined  to  doubt  because  of  the 
pleasurable  intellectual  friction  which  it  excites,  or 
because  of  the  excuse  it  would  afford  for  continuing 
in  an  irreligious  habit  of  mind  or  in  the  open  ne- 
glect of  duty.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  referring  to 
minds  who  honestly  desire  to  hold  the  truth,  and 
are  ready  to  accept  its  consequences  whether  theo- 
retical or  practical — baptized,  and  confirmed,  or  even 
communing  members  of  the  Church,  who  have  been 
reared  in  its  bosom,  instructed  in  its  ways,  and  who 
are  attached  to  its  worship  and  its  history.  There 
are  many  such  who  need  a  sort  of  counsel  which 
they  do  not  get,  and  crave  a  special  individual  care 
and  direction  which  not  a  few  parish  priests  have 
neither  the  training  nor  the  ability,  and,  conse- 
quently, not  the  inclination,  to  give.  And,  for  the 
want  of  them,  there  are  lives  among  us  that,  amid 
the  surging  cross-currents  of  modern  thought,  are 
slowly,  silently,  but  surely  ravelling  out  and  crmn- 
bling  to  pieces  beneath  the  shadows  of  our  Church 
spires,  nay,  amid  the  very  pomp  of  our  ceremonial 
and  within  the  sound  of  our  preaching.  It  is,  in- 
deed, high  time  that  parish  ministers  should  arouse 
from  their  lethargy  on  this  side  of  their  work,  and 


The  Cure  of  Soiils.  133 

give  more  of  their  thoiiglit  and  effort  to  the  task  of 
stopping  these  leaks  in  our  ecclesiastical  cisterns, 
mending  these  hidden  breaches  in  oar  walls  of  de- 
fence.* 

There  are  doubters  that  do  not  fall  within  the 
scope  of  the  present  inquiry.  There  is  the  abso- 
lute 'sceptic,  who,  if  he  has  not  lost  faith  in  the  ex- 
istence of  all  obhgatory  truth,  has  lost  it  in  all  the 
customary  methods  and  instrumentalities  for  discov- 
ering it.  He  distrusts  his  own  reason,  his  own 
moral  intuitions,  because  of  their  occasional  falli- 
bility. He  distrusts  the  evidences  that  are  offered 
because  they  are  not  free  from  difficulty,  or  because 
they  leave  behind  them  unanswered  objections. 
With  such,  be  he  deist,  pantheist,  atheist,  or  what 

*  Dean  Alford,  in  liis  "  Essays"  (p.  147),  says,  speaking  of 
the  condition  of  tilings  on  tliis  subject  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land :  "  Our  present  training  is  very  defective,  and  inability  to 
guide  men  who  are,  if  not  troubled,  at  least  deeply  affected  by 
the  opposing  blasts  of  doctrine  on  a  thousand  matters,  is  very 
general  on  the  part  of  our  ministry." 

Mr.  Froude,  in  more  than  one  place  in  his  "  Short  Essays 
on  Great  Subjects,"  affirms  the  same,  though  in  much  strong- 
er, and  even  in  contemptuous  terms. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  ice  have  not  much  reason  to  ask  for 
any  modiflcation  of  the  Dean's  language. 


134  Condones  ad  Clerunt. 

not,  we  have  no  concern  in  tlie  urgency  now  under 
consideration.  So  with  the  frivolous,  light-hearted 
sceptic  who  has  given  up  sober  thought  for  a  laugh 
or  a  sneer,  and  who  finds  a  certain  compensation 
for  the  anarchy  in  his  own  mind  by  denying  or  rid- 
iculing the  beliefs  around  him.  As  another  has 
well  said  :  "  When  I  hear  some  youth  telling  me 
with  a  simpering  face  that  he  does  not  linow  or  pre- 
tend to  say  whether  there  be  a  God  or  not  ;  or 
whether,  if  there  be,  lie  takes  any  interest  in  hu- 
man aiiairs,  or  whether  if  he  does,  it  much  concerns 
us  to  know,  or  whether,  if  lie  has  revealed  that 
knoweldge,  it  is  j)ossible  or  impossible  for  us  to  as- 
certain it  ;  when  I  hear  him  further  saying,  that 
meantime  he  is  disposed  to  make  himself  very  easy 
in  the  midst  of  these  uncertainties,  and  await  the 
great  revelation  of  the  future  with  philosophical, 
that  is,  being  interpreted,  with  idiotic,  tranquillity, 
I  see  that  in  point  of  fact,  he  has  never  entered  into 
the  question,  that  he  has  failed  to  realize  the  terri- 
ble moment  of  the  questions  (however  decided)  of 
which  he  speaks  with  such  amazing  flippancy." 

Such  a  mind  has  no  idea  of  what  thinking  is,  or  it 
wishes  to  get  rid  of  disquieting  truths,  or  it  has  sur^ 


TIic  Cure  of  Souls. 


/rendered  itseK  to  a  foolish  craving  for  paradox,  or 
perhaps,  other  excitement  faihng,  it  ventilates  its 
f olUes  with  the  amiable  desire  to  stir  up  and  frighten 
' '  mammas  and  maiden  aunts  and  timid  parsons. ' '  _ 
There  is  no  occasion  for  prescribing  any  special 
handhng  of  such  cases.  Thej  should  be  treated 
just  as  we  always  treat  childish  levity  and  folly 
when  exhibited  in  grave  matters.  Unfortunately, 
what  has  been  attributed  to  "  the  simpering  youth" 
sometimes  shows  itself  in  grown-up  men  of  some 
intellectual  pretension.  When  it  does,  the  flippancy 
is  only  all  the  more  childish  and  deserves  to  be  met 
with  an  indignant  rebuke.* 

But  this  class  of  doubters  is  quite  outside  our 
province,  and  I  have  alluded  to  them  only  in  a 
passing  way.     Our  thought  is  turned  to  a  very  dif- 

*  The  doubter  of  this  kind  reminds  us  of  what  Fuller  says  : 
'*  He  keeps  a  register  of  many  difficult  places  in  Scripture  ; 
not  that  he  desires  satisfaction  therein,  but  delights  to  puzzle 
divines  therewith  ;  and  counts  it  a  great  conquest  when  he 
hath  posed  them.  Unnecessary  questions  out  of  the  Bible  are 
his  most  necessary  study  ;  and  he  is  more  curious  to  know 
where  Lazarus's  soul  was  the  four  days  he  lay  in  the  grave 
than  cai'eful  to  provide  for  his  own  soul  when  he  shall  be 
dead." 


136  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

ferent  cliaracter — one  on  which  we  cannot  well  be- 
stow too  much  attention  and  sympathy — the  mind 
tliat  doubts  because  it  cannot  help  it,  and  is  sad  and 
wretched  because  it  doubts.  Such  a  mind  will 
cherish  the  hope  that  it  may  be  mistaken,  will  re- 
joice to  be  answered  and  confuted,  will  keep  back 
its  convictions  as  if  they  were  a  guilty  secret,  Avill 
utter  them  only  as  the  cry  of  an  agonized  heart, 
will  shrink  from  imparting  them  to  others  as  though 
they  involved  the  danger  of  a  contagion.  There 
are  minds  among  us  that  enter  into  the  feeling  that 
Pascal  expressed  when  addressing  the  light-hearted 
sceptic :  "Is  this,  then,  a  thing  to  be  said  with 
gayety  ?  Is  it  not  rather  a  thing  to  be  said  with 
tears,  as  the  saddest  thing  in  the  world."*  They 
have  not  lost  their  hold  on   God  ;  they  have  not 

*  In  "The  New  Republic"  (page  359),  this  sad,  serious 
view  of  doubt  is  strongly  put  by  one  of  the  characters  : 

"  Once  I  could  pray  every  morning  and  go  forth  to  my  day's 
labor  stayed  and  comforted.  But  now  I  can  pi'ay  no  longer. 
You  have  taken  my  God  away  from  me,  and  I  know  not 
where  yuu  have  laid  him.  My  only  consolation  in  my  misery 
is  Ihat  I  am  at  least  inconsolable  for  his  loss.  Though  you 
have  made  me  miserable,  I  am  not  yet  content  with  my  mis- 
ery ;  and  there  is  one  fully  that  1  will  not  give  tongue  to.  I 
will  not  say,  peace,  peace,  when  there  is  uo  peace." 


The  Ctire  of  So2ils. 


0/ 


drifted  away  from  faitli  in  Christ ;  fcliey  have  not 
formally  broken  Avith  any  of  the  fundamentals  of 
Christianity  ;  but,  like  a  vessel  moored  in  a  harbor, 
yet  dragging  its  anchor,  with  the  open  sea  surging 
just  outside,  they  are  drifting  slowly  into  the  storm 
and  toward  the  shipwreck  of  their  beliefs  and  hopes. 
]^ow,  with  such,  the  sources,  the  forms,  the  de- 
grees of  doubt  are  various.  One  doubts  because  his 
mental  temperament  inclines  him  to  do  so,  another 
because  of  an  unsettled  will  and  a  hidden  moral  ob- 
liquity, another  because  of  his  line  of  reading  or 
the  influences  of  irreligious  associates.  There  are 
doubts  which  are  rooted  and  doubts  which  are  only 
provisional,  i.e.^  entertained  as  necessary  prelimi- 
naries to  inquiry  and  reflection.  There  are  moral 
doubts,  arising  from  the  darkening  of  God's  face  in 
the  time  of  trouble  and  calamity  ;  doubts  a3  to  His 
love,  wisdom,  and  justice,  springing  from  the  harsh 
inequalities  of  human  lot  and  from  what  seems  like 
favoritism  in  the  divine  dealings.  And  then  there  is 
that  restless,  numerous  brood  warmed  into  activity 
by  the  conflict  with  the  Christian  traditions  which 
has  been  engendered  by  the  progress  of  physical 
knowledge — doubts  as  to  the  reality  of  Christianity 


138  Condones  ad  Clertim. 


as  a  wliole,  donljts  as  to  tlie  reality  of  tliis  or  that 
part  of  it,  e.g.,  the  derivation  and  authority  of  the 
Priesthood,  the  efficacy  of  the  Sacraments,  the  expi- 
atory character  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  duration 
of  future  punishment,  the  nature  of  the  Church, 
whether  it  was  organized,  equipped,  and  officered 
by  its  Head,  or  whether  all  this  was  left  to  the  shift- 
ing circumstances  and  tastes  of  each  generation — 
whether  our  religion  began  as  an  idea,  an  influence, 
or  as  a  visible  kingdom,  with  its  essential  order,  as 
well  as  its  essential  faith,  established  for  all  the  ages 
to  come. 

Thus  far  I  have  endeavored  to  state  the  case  in 
outline  and  somewhat  in  detail  ;  and  now  I  turn  to 
consider  the  practical  questions  growing  out  of  the 
relations  to  it  of  the  cure  of  souls.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that,  while  lectures  and  discourses  addressed 
to  assembhes  and  dealing  with  men  in  bulk  may 
accomplish  much  good,  in  most  instances  of  real 
difficulty,  the  only  effectual  treatment  must  be  in- 
dividual and  private.  Now,  what  are  we  to  do  ? 
what  must  be  the  special  training  to  qualify  us  for 
these  hand-to-hand  conflicts  with  minds  thus  beset 
and  thus  troubled  coming  to  us  for  help  ?     No  one 


The  Ctii^e  of  Souls.  139 

will  feel  more  deeply  tliaa  I  how  far  short  of  the 
requirements  of  this  grave  and  delicate  duty  my 
suggestions  will  fall.  If  they  have  any  merit,  it 
will  be  found  in  the  honest  recognition  of  the  diffi- 
culty and  the  want,  and  in  the  equally  honest  at- 
tempt to  find  a  remedy  for  both. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  consider  this  or  that  spe- 
cific doubt  or  objection,  but  rather  aspects  and 
bearings  of  the  sceptical  drift  cropping  out  here 
and  there,  in  minds  which  have  taken  upon  them- 
selves the  sacrament'U7)%  of  faith  and  obedience,  and 
to  indicate  some  lines  of  study  and  modes  of  treat- 
ment by  which  it  may  be  met. 

(1)  As  a  necessary  part  of  our  preparation  for 
this  task  we  should  enter  upon  a  careful  and  com- 
prehensive study  of  the  history  of  modern  doubt, 
as  also  of  the  history  of  modern  Apologetics.  The 
elements  of  Christian  evidence  are  always  the  same, 
but  their  combination  and  arrangement  in  every 
age  depend  upon  the  points  of  attack  and  the  new 
weapons  employed  by  the  shifting  tactics  of  unbe- 
lief. The  history  of  the  evidences  is  divisible  into 
four  chapters  :* 

*  Vide  Farrar's  "  Critical  History  of  Free  Thought,"  p.  453. 


140  Conciojies  ad  Clerum. 

(1)  That  embracing  the  conflict  of  Christianity 
with  Judaism  and  Paganism. 

(2)  That  embracing  the  contest  with  the  various 
forms  of  free  thought  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

(3)  That  developed  by  the  unbelief  of  the 
Kenaissance. 

(4)  That  including  the  struggle  against  the  De- 
ism of  England,  the  Atheism  of  France,  and  the 
Rationalism  of  Germany — the  three  issuing  in  that 
huge  and  stormy  amalgam  of  doubt  and  denial 
which,  in  our  day,  exhibits  itself  in  all  the  aspects 
of  opposition,  lying  between  a  bald  naturalistic 
positivism  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  spongy  eclecti- 
cism on  the  other.  Positivism  denies  \hQ,  jpossibil- 
ity  of  revelation  ;  the  instinctive,  intuitional,  spir- 
itualistic philosophy  denies  its  necessity  ;  while  the 
various  eclectic  schools  accept  only  such  parts  of  it 
as  chance  to  square  with  their  own  fluctuating 
standards.  The  positivist,  pushing  to  its  logical  re- 
sult the  intellectual  and  sensational  method  of  the 
old  Deistic  school  of  the  eighteenth  century,  aflirms 
that  all  outside  the  sphere  of  the  senses  and  the 
understanding  is  unthinkable  and  unknowable.  The 
intuitionalist  declares  that  the  only  possible  revela- 


The  CtLi'e  of  Souls.  141 

tion  is  that  whicli  God  has  written  upon  the  tablet  of 
the  human  soul.  The  eclecticist  admits  the  fact  of 
a  book-revelation,  but  rejects  such  parts  of  it  as 
happen  to  disagree  with  his  own  self-created  stand- 
ard of  judgment.  To  these  must  be  added  the  sci- 
entist, who  discredits  revelation  wholly  or  partially, 
because  of  its  asserted  contradiction  of  certain  al- 
leged results  of  modern  discovery.  I  simply  state 
the  best  known,  the  most  respectable,  as  well  as  the 
most  formidable,  phases  of  existing  unbelief.  I 
make  no  attempt  to  run  them  out  into  particulars 
or  to  develop  their  characteristic  bearings.  I  am 
only  insisting  that  every  guide  of  souls  shall  thor- 
oughly understand  the  assailants  of  the  faith  which 
he  is  commissioned  to  defend,  and  also  keep  well 
in  hand  the  means  of  defense  which  the  best  Chris- 
tian learning  of  the  day  has  supplied.  He  is  not, 
observe,  expected  to  deal  with  avowed  unbelievers, 
but  with  those  of  his  Hock  whose  minds  and  hearts 
are  clouded  and  vexed  by  difficulties  which  them- 
selves cannot  answer,  and  yet  which,  if  not  an- 
swered, will  sooner  or  later  weaken  and  perhaps 
shatter  their  faith.  Seldom  will  the  theories  of  un- 
belief above-named  be  found  lurkine-  as  theories 


142  Condones  ad  Cler7t77i. 

in  the  minds  of  the  faithful.  It  is  rather  the  atmos- 
phere generated  by  them,  and  insensibly  interfused 
through  the  lungs  of  the  popular  faith,  that  will 
chiefly  confront  us.  This  is  something  which  can- 
not be  met  by  processes  of  argument,  or  by  formal 
arrays  of  evidence.  The  enemy  is  not  one  of  flesh 
and  blood,  with  a  local  habitation  and  a  name  ;  but 
a  temper  of  mind,  a  drift  of  feeling,  a  veiled  dis- 
trust, a  suspicion  that  gradually  comes  to  the  front. 

To  meet  these  we  must  build  up  on  the  opposite 
side.  The  currents  of  thought  must  be  turned  into 
healthier  channels.  The  mind's  hold  on  the  truth 
must  be  strengthened  and  the  atmosphere  it  breathes 
must  be  purified.  Scatter  the  mist  by  letting  in  the 
light.  Plant  ladders  in  the  dark  places,  up  which 
the  troubled  soal  may  climb,  until  it  feels  the 
warmth  and  beholds  the  radiance  of  the  sun. 

In  dealing  with  avowed  unbelief,  the  best  Chris- 
tian apologists  in  all  ages  have  relied  sometimes 
upon  the  philosophy,  and  sometimes  upon  the 
facts  of  the  Gospel.  Either  or  both  lines  may 
still  be  followed  when  necessary,  but  the  first 
'thing  to  be  done  in  the  cases  now  under  review  is 
to  check,  or  expel  one  temper  or  tendency  by  in- 


The  CiLre  of  Souls.  143 

troducing  another  and  sonnder  one.  In  doing  this 
the  following  considerations  will  be  of  great  value. 

(1)  Resjjonsibility  for  opinions  and  heliefs. 

There  has  arisen  of  late  a  perilous  levity  of  tem- 
per in  dealing  with  questions  that  most  profoundly 
affect  the  present  condition  and  future  destiny  of 
the  soul.  In  the  general  upheaval  of  the  time,  mul- 
titudes have  come  to  feel  that  there  is  little,  if  any, 
responsibility  attaching  to  what  a  man  believes  or 
disbelieves  ;  that  opinions  may  be  embraced  or  set 
aside  very  much  as  we  put  on  or  off  our  clothing, 
according  to  the  shifting  caprices  of  fashion  ;  that 
a  true  faith  and  a  true  life  are  not  inseparable  ; 
and  that  while  accountable  for  the  life,  we  are 
quite  at  liberty  to  do  as  we  please  about  the  faith 
or  no  faith  which  we  profess.  It  is  impossible  to 
exaggerate  the  vicious  influence  of  this  fallacy. 

It  is  said  that  we  are  bound  to  accept  the  current 
Christian  morality  because  in  regard  to  that  there  is 
an  almost  universal  agreement  ;  but  that  there  is 
no  such  obligation  in  regard  to  any  system  of  faith 
or  teaching,  and  this,  for  the  reason  that  all  Chris- 
tian doctrines  offered  for  our  acceptance  are  more 
or  less  doubted  or  denied  ;  that  they  are  in  fact  all 


144  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 

resolvable  into  matters  of  opinion,  concerning  which 
the  widest  freedom  of  criticism  and  dissent  must  be 
allowed.  The  inference  from  this  is  that  while  a 
man  is  responsible  for  his  moral  code,  he  need  not 
be  so  for  his  religious  beliefs.  Now,  to  this  it  may 
be  truly  answered  that  the  faith  of  Christianity  is 
the  root  and  ground  of  Christian  morality.  We 
may,  indeed,  differ  on  many  unessential  things  in- 
cluded in  the  vast  circle  of  Christian  teaching,  and 
yet  not  disturb  the  foundations  of  Christian  mor- 
als ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  reject  the  fundamentals 
of  that  teaching  and  retain,  for  any  length  of  time, 
the  morality  which  is  part  of  its  vital  breath.  It 
often  happens  that  a  man  keeps  himself  morally 
healthy  by  habitually  breathing  the  atmosphere  cre- 
ated by  the  truth,  while  he  stands  apart  from  the 
truth  itself.  This  may  be  true  of  an  individual, 
but  not  of  a  generation.  It  is  an  anomaly  which 
soon  corrects  itself. 

The  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  truth  is  simply 
one  mode  of  exercising  our  liberty  of  choice. 
Every  man's  will  has  as  much  to  do  with  his  atti- 
tude toward  sjDiritual  truth  as  his  reason,  his  wishes 
as  his  arguments,  the  state  of  his  affections  as  the 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  145 

evidence  that  may  be  offered  to  liim.  There  never 
was  a  greater  mistake  than  to  snpj)Ose  that  most 
men's  beh'ef  is  determined  by  the  amount  of  evi- 
dence advanced  or  by  logical  reasoning.  A  power 
stronger  than  either  lies  back  of  both — the  condi- 
tion of  the  mind  itself — its  bias — its  sympathies  and 
antipathies — its  desires  and  prejudices.  How  often 
do  we  see  persons  believing  or  denying  -^athout  evi- 
dence, or  in  the  teeth  of  evidence  !  How  often  does 
the  most  cogent  argument  split  upon  the  underlying 
rock  of  an  averted  will,  or  burn  up  and  dissolve  in 
the  flame  of  aroused  passion  !  How  differently  do 
different  minds  interpret  the  same  facts  !  The 
force  of  proof  depends  upon  the  degree  in  which  it 
helps  or  hinders  the  dominant  wish,  the  ruling  pur- 
pose, of  the  mind  to  which  it  is  addressed.  Said  our 
Lord  :  "  This  is  the  condemnation,  that  the  light  is 
come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  the  darkness 
rather  than  the  light  [and  why  ?]  because  their 
deeds  were  evil. "  (St.  John  3  :  19.)  He  declares  that 
there  are  two  states  of  mind.  In  the  one  we  love 
the  darkness  because  it  favors  the  vanities,  the  errors, 
the  wickednesses  to  which  we  are  inclined.  In  the 
other  we  prefer  the  light  because  it  leads  us  toward 


146  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

what  is  purest  and  best.  For  botli  states,  however 
they  may  have  been  prodnced,  we  are,  in  the  last 
resort,  responsible.  And  if  we  carefully  examine 
the  Scriptures,  we  shall  find  that  they  do  not  deal  so 
much  with  wrong  opinions,  with  particular  errors 
in  belief,  as  with  the  moral  bias — the  general  con- 
dition of  mind  and  heart — which  inclines  us  to  them 
and  gives  them  their  hold  upon  us.  They  take  it 
for  granted  that  every  mind  to  whom  the  Word  of 
truth  is  offered  is  under  a  moral  obligation  to  accept 
it  ;  and  they  also  take  it  for  granted  that  if  we  re- 
ject it,  it  is  because  of  a  hostile  temper  of  heart  for 
which  we  are  accountable.  It  is  idle  for  any  man 
to  say  that  he  ccmnot  believe  in  Christ.  For,  if  he 
cannot,  his  very  inability  is  of  the  essence  of  his  sin. 
This  clearly  is  the  teaching  of  Revelation.  The 
will  has  nothing  to  do  with  demonstrative  truths. 
If  a  man  rejects  them  he  is  said  to  be  an  idiot,  not 
a  transgressor.  But  sj)iritual  truth,  "the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,"  stands  on  different  ground.  The  in- 
tellect has  far  less  to  do  with  it  than  the  heart. 
Hence  the  denial  of  it  impeaches  a  man's  heart 
rather  than  his  brain.  A  man  may  be  mentally 
bright  and  morally  bad.     Pie  may  not  be  faulted 


The   Cure  of  Souls.  147 

because  lie  has  a  dull  miud,  nor  praised  because  he 
has  a  keen  one  ;  but  he  must  be  faulted  if  he  have 
a  bad  heart,  and,  consequently,  for  what  a  bad 
heart  rejects.  "We  are  told  that  a  man  must  believe 
as  he  thinks,  that  he  cannot  help  the  result  of  his 
thinking,  •  that  he  must  follow  the  lead  of  the  argu- 
ments jjresented  to  him,  that  if  he  reasons,  he  has 
no  more  control  over  the  conclusions  to  which  his 
reasoning  may  bring  him  than  a  printing  machine 
has  over  the  impressions  made  by  its  types.  "  But,' ' 
as  has  been  well  said,  "  the  living  mind  does  not  so 
act.  If  it  cannot  control  the  impressions  made  by 
the  types  when  once  set  up,  it  has,  at  least,  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  setting  them  up. ' ' 

On  the  other  hand,  let  me  not  omit  considera- 
tions which  may  modify,  though  they  cannot  alto- 
gether destroy,  this  responsibility  for  opinions  and 
beliefs.  There  are  the  discipline  and  training  of 
early  years — the  influence  of  the  school,  the  society 
in  which  we  have  been  reared  and  in  the  choice  of 
which  we  had  and  could  have  no  part.  There  are 
the  bands  and  fences  of  circumstances  which  we  did 
not  create,  and  which  we  cannot  entirely  control. 
There  is  the  power  over  us  of  learning,  logic,  and 


148  Condones  ad  Clcrum. 

eloquence,  wielded  in  defence,  it  may  be,  of  the 
wrong  side,  of  facts  partially  stated,  or  evidence 
twisted  out  of  its  proper  place  and  relations,  of 
personal  character  commanding  our  confidence  and 
yet  arrayed  against  the  truth.  Again,  the  ages  are 
not  the  same  in  their  influence  over  us.  One  will 
be  an  age  of  faith,  another  an  age  of  doubt  ;  one  will 
be  quiet,  another  restless  ;  one  will  affirm  and  con- 
struct, another  will  deny  and  destroy.  There  is  an 
ebb  and  there  is  a  flow,  an  advance  and  retreat,  an 
action  and  reaction,  in  the  opinions  and  beliefs  of 
]nen,  whose  origin  is  as  mysterious  as  their  effects 
are  subtle  and  powerful.  From  these  no  mind, 
however  cautious  and  self-poised,  can  entirely  dis- 
sociate itself.  We  are  flavored  by  what  we  feed 
upon,  and  our  food  is  more  or  less  in  the  keeping  of 
the  time  in  which  we  live/  And  yet  after  all  due 
allowance  is  made  for  the  operation  of  these  causes, 
the  fact  remains,  that  every  man  who  stands  in  the 
light,  and  has  the  opportunity  and  the  means  to 
know  the  truth,  is  accountable  for  his  mental  and 
moral  attitude  toward  the  great  issues  which  con- 
front him.  If  we  scuttle  the  ark  built  for  our 
safety,  we  have  only  ourselves  to  blame  if  we  sink 
in  the  troubled  waters. 


The  Cure  of  Sotils.  149 

Mucli  more  remains  to  be  said  on  this  point,  but 
it  was  my  purpose  to  say  no  more  than  would  serve 
to  bring  it  distinctly  before  you  as  a  thing  to  be 
urged  very  strongly  upon  those  who  come  to  you 
for  counsel  and  direction  respecting  their  doubts. 
Most  persons  would  doubt  less  easily  if  they  had  a 
due  sense  of  their  responsibility  in  matters  of  re- 
ligious opinion  and  faith.  Certainly,  they  would  be 
more  cautious  in  taking  up  new  theories,  and  more 
reluctant  in  surrendering  what  they  have  been 
taught  to  believe.  There  would  be  some  hope  of 
persuading  them  that  "  they  have  duties  toward  old 
truths  as  well  as  toward  new  ones  ' ' ;  that,  to  say 
the  least,  the  claim  upon  them  of  many  of  the 
plausible  and  pretentious  ventures  of  modern 
thought,  liable  to  be  upset  and  swept  away  by  some 
single  fact  not  unlikely  to  be  discovered  any  day, 
is  no  stronger  than  the  claim  upon  their  faith  and 
obedience  of  what  was  said  and  done  in  Judea  more 
than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago. 

(2)  A  settled  and  definite  mode  of  dealing  with 
that  jpTohlem  of  all  problems— ^the  origin  and  exist- 
ence of  evil  in  a  universe  created  and  governed  hy  a 
God  of  infinite  power ^  wisdom,  and  love.     I  shall 


150  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

not  repeat  here  tlie  history  of  man's  qnestionings 
and  speculations  and  faihn*es  on  this  subject  ;  nor 
dwell  on  its  strange,  and  yet  obvious  fascination 
for  the  human  mind,  at  every  stage  and  under 
every  phase  of  its  development.  On  these  points 
tliere  is  easy  access  for  all  to  abundant  sources  of 
information.  But  even  though  I  forbear  to  touch 
upon  these,  I  may  be  thought  by  some  to  have 
wandered  away  needlessly  into  a  field  of  inquiry 
quite  remote  from  the  strictly  practical  aim  of  these 
counsels  to  those  charged  with  the  cure  of  souls. 
There  are  cases  in  which  the  practical  can  be  safely 
and  truly  reached  only  by  digging  down  deep  into 
the  realm  of  the  hidden  and  obscure.  Our  work, 
if  it  is  to  abide,  must  rest  upon  principles.  Our 
uses  and  methods  in  the  guidance  of  the  weak  and 
erring  must  be  built  up  on  a  solid  basis  of  truth 
and  fact,  if  they  are  to  be  genuine  helps.  With 
this  motive,  then,  clearly  understood,  let  me  ask 
you  to  follow  me,  while  I  take  up  a  few  of  the 
links  in  the  chain  of  abstract  thought  which  we 
should  endeavor  to  keep  always  free  from  rust  and 
ambiguity.  i 

It  matters  not  how  we  consider  the  evil  that  is  in 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  151 

our  world  and  in  ourselves,  whether  physical  or 
moral  ;  whether  causing  all  life  to  travail  and  groan 
with  pain,  or  working  itself  out  in  individual  na- , 
tui'es  in  the  darknesss  which  leads  to  despair,  or  in 
the  bitterness  which  forces  from  the  hps  even  of 
stoics  the  cry  of  anguish  ;  whether,  again,  massed 
in  universal  and  irreconcilable  opposition  to  God's 
righteous  will,  and  shaking  the  world  with  the  tread 
of  battle,  or  exhibiting  itself  in  the  same  awful  con- 
flict within  the  narrower  sphere  of  personal  wills — 
it  matters  not  in  which  aspect  it  is  contemplated,  it 
is  not  only  the  most  difficult  and  baffling  of  all  sub- 
jects intellectually  considered,  but  also  the  most 
prohfic  of  all  sources  of  moral  doubt.  We  cannot 
have  a  doctrine  of  sin  or  of  holiness  apart  from  a 
doctrine  of  evil.  We  cannot  interpret  the  key- 
note, far  less  follow  out  the  divine  harmony,  of 
Christian  morality,  unless  we  shall  first  determine 
what  evil  is,  whether  as  temptation  assailing  the 
will,  or  as  ripened  wickedness  issuing  from  the  will. 
Now,  of  all  the  methods  devised  or  known  for 
determining  the  nature,  the  essence,  of  evil,  and  its 
place  in  the  universe,  there  are  only  two  that,  in  these 
days,  especially  concern  us  and  our  work.      And, 


152  Condones  ad  Clerum. 


speaking  generally,  1  wonld  say,  before  going  fur- 
ther into  the  subject,  that  we  must  understand  these 
rival  methods  so  clearly  and  definitely  as  that  we 
shall  be  able  to  tell  any  inquirer,  who  craves  to 
know,  why  we  reject  the  one  and  embrace  the 
other.  For  so  ouly  can  we  hope  to  meet  success- 
fully the  gravest  of  all  intellectual  troubles  on 
moral  subjects,  and  t]^e  darkest  of  all  doubts  within 
the  sphere  of  the  will  and  personal  accountability. 
I  have  said  that  just  now,  by  reason  of  the  drift 
of  living  thought,  there  are  only  two  theories  of 
moral  evil  which  immediately  concern  us.  An  im- 
passable gulf  separates  them.  They  stand  facing 
each  other  like  Mount  Gerizim  and  Mount  Ebal. 
The  one  flatters  the  strength  and  pride  of  the  intel- 
lect, is  impatient  of  mystery,  insists  upon  levelling 
down  what  it  cannot  overpass,  treats  contradictory 
things  as  though  they  had  no  right  to  exist,  and 
punishes  their  impertinent  intrusion  by  denying 
them  a  place  in  the  field  of  legitimate  thought,  is 
intolerant  of  facts  which  refuse  to  be  squared  and 
jointed  and  piled  into  logical  completeness.  The 
other  assumes  the  existence  of  mysteries  and  con- 
tardictions  which,  though  they  never  cease  to  be 


The  Cure  of  Sotds.  153 

lawful  objects  of  thought  and  healthy  incentives  to 
the  loftiest  efforts  of  reason,  are  yet  so  far  above 
all  possibility  of  precise,  logical  formulation  as  to 
belong,  in  the  last  resort,  to  the  domain  of  faith  ;  it 
admits  facts  which  it  cannot  reconcile  ;  it  finds  the 
grounds  of  experiences  and  motives  in  the  soul  and 
of  obligations  in  men's  outward  life,  away  down  or 
away  up,  in  a  region  whose  air  is  too  etherial  for 
the  lungs  of  reason  ;  it  trusts,  believes,  adores,  in. 
spite  of  the  clouds  and  thick  darkness  which  veil 
the  providences  of  the  Almighty  in  a  world  of  sin 
and  sorrow  ;  it  sees  the  evil,  yet  casts  no  suspicion 
on  the  perfect  goodness  of  God  ;  it  insists  that  what 
is  inscrutable  in  the  divine  administration  can  be 
unravelled  only  by  a  moral  chie,  that  it  is  only  on  the 
spiritual  side  of  our  nature  that  the  door  of  the 
soul  opens  out  upon  the  infinite  ;  recognizing  the 
hopeless  incompatibility,  in  this  life,  between  the  de- 
mand for  abstract,  logical  completeness  of  state- 
ment touching  the  meaning  of  moral  evil,  and  the 
demand  of  the  two  strongest  moral  instincts  of  na- 
tui'e — that  of  contrition  for  wrong-doing  and  that  of 
aspiration  after  holiness  and  perfection — it  regards 
the  practical  satisfaction  of  the  latter  as  of  vastly 


154  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

more  moment  than  that  of  the  former,  and  declares 
to  every  soul  that  in  the  end,  whatever  its  doubts, 
questionings,  difficulties,  speculations,  it  must  choose 
between  the  satisfaction  of  the  intellect  and  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  conscience,  between  the  authority 
of  the  intellectual  and  the  authority  of  the  moral 
consciousness.  Again,  for  the  contrast  is  by  no 
means  exhausted,  the  one  theory  is  that  of  human 
philosophy  running  through  a  long  series  of  schools 
— pantheistic,  atheistic,  materialistic,  positivist,  util- 
itarian— cropping  out  in  the  dawn  of  the  old  pagan 
thought,  speaking  out  boldly  in  the  measured  think- 
ing of  Lucretius,  reaffirmed  with  a  wealth  of  subtle 
and  vigorous  reasoning  in  the  pages  of  Spinoza,  ap- 
proached from  another  side  and  under  modern  in- 
jQuences  again  formulated  by  the  faithless  logic  of 
Comte  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  it  has  been  ever 
changing  its  dress  while  itself  has  remained  un- 
chano'ed.  Scholars  and  thinkers  are  familiar  with 
its  processes  and  formulas,  while  common  minds 
are  quite  as  much  so  with  its  practical  conclusions. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  recapitulate,  far  less  de- 
scribe, the  former  ;  but  it  is  properly  and  even  ne- 
cessarily a  part  of  my  task  to  advert  to  the  latter. 


The  Citre  of  Souls.  155 

It  is  characteristic  of  this  theory  to  bring  down  the 
distinction  of  right  and  wrong  from  the  region  of  our 
personal  relations  with  God  to  that  of  human  ex- 
pediency, to  determine  the  moral  character  of  hu- 
man action  by  its  consequences,  not  by  antecedent 
and  immutable  moral  distinctions,  to  declare  that 
there  is  no  evil  in  the  universe  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained in  some  way  as  a  step  in  the  development  of 
good,  that  evil  is  only  good  in  the  making,  that  sin 
is  only  that  form  of  moral  evil  which  arises  of  ne- 
cessity from  the  present  imperfections  and  limita- 
tions of  our  being,  that  it  will  disappear  somewhere, 
as  morning  mists  before  the  rising  sun,  in  the 
widening,  ascending  cycles  of  man's  self-centred, 
self-impelled  evolution,  and  finally,  that  what  we 
understand  by  sin  and  hell,  by  eternal  law,  by  pun- 
ishment, by  holiness,  by  redemption  and  everlasting 
life  are  the  dreams  of  a  theological  nightmare, 
worthy  of  the  childhood  rather  than  the  manhood 
of  the  race. 

The  other  theory,  it  might  be  enough  to  say,  is 
that  of  Christianity.  The  buttresses  on  which  it 
rests  are  what  we  believe  to  be  the  written  Word  of 
God  and  the  indisputable  facts  of  our  own  moral  con- 


156  Condones  ad  Clertim. 


scionsness.  In  conformity  with  both,  it  declares 
all  moral  evil  to  be  an  outrage  on  the  perfect  holi- 
ness of  God,  that  it  is  always  and  everywhere  in 
antagonism  to  His  righteous  will,  that  it  not  only 
"is  not,"  but  "cannot  be  subject  to  His  law," 
that  sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law — the  fruit  of 
a  will  hostile  to  the  will  of  God,  and  hostile  in  such 
a  sense  that,  while  its  liberty  lasts  and  itself  con- 
tinues to  move  on  the  same  plane  of  mere  nature  as 
now,  no  conceivable  series  of  evolutions  can  alter  its 
character  ;  or  emancipate  it  from  its  doom.  The 
mystery  does  not  change  the  fact.  Evil  is  evil, 
sin  is  sin,  whatever  our  inability  to  account  for  its 
origin,  or  to  reconcile  it  with  the  love  and  wisdom 
and  omnipotence  of  God.  It  is  here,  and  no  specu- 
lations or  inventions  of  man  can  make  it  otherwise 
than  it  is.  Its  guilt  does  not  arise  from  his  im- 
perfections or  limitations,  nor  will  it  disappear  as 
they  disappear.  A  lie  is  a  lie  always  and  every- 
where. So  with  impurity,  disobedience,  stealing, 
eovetousness,  pride,  selfishness,  and  the  whole  brood 
of  iniquity.  The  graces  of  a  holy  life  are  not  the 
vices  of  a  wicked  one  purified  and  transformed  by 
growth  and  development.     The  Christian  theory  of 


The  CzLve  of  Souls.  157 

evil  utterly  and  absolutely  repudiates  any  sucli  pan- 
theistic legerdemain  in  shifting  the  lights  and 
shadows  around  the  throne  of  God's  immutable  per- 
fection, and  so  evolving  1he  sweet  from  the  bitter, 
the  true  from  the  false,  the  good  from  the  bad, 
angels  from  devils. 

Now,  if  we  were  to  cross  the  threshold  of  many 
hearts,  and  confront  their  deepest,  sorest  doubts, 
touch  the  gnilty  secret  of  a  waning  faith,  the 
worm  gnawing  at  the  vitals  of  their  religion,  we 
should  find,  the  moment  the  veil  was  lifted,  that 
while  their  feet  rested  on  the  Christian  theory  of  sin 
and  evil,  their  heads  and  hearts  were  busy  with 
teachings,  or  were  tossed  and  distressed  by  tempta- 
tions, or  were  insensibly  breathing  an  atmosphere 
that  had  issued  from  its  versatile  and  seductive  an- 
tagonist. Many  a  sheep  is  still  in  our  fold,  outward- 
ly loyal  to  its  Great  Shepherd — apparently  devout, 
obedient,  and  penitent,  bowing  low  in  confessions, 
listening  to  absolutions,  partaking  of  the  sacrifice, 
and  yet  with  the  very  foundations  of  his  spiritual 
life  worm-eaten  and  honeycombed  by  confused  no- 
tions, vacillating  views  about  sin  and  duty,  about 
God  in  Christ,   about  heaven  and  hell,  and  even 


158  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

about  tlie  life  to  come — all  of  tliein  imported,  per- 
haps, into  Ills  lionseliold  and  then  into  liis  mind, 
without  a  suspicion  of  what  was  going  on,  by  much 
of  the  current  hterature  of  the  day,  or  by  neighbors 
and  acquaintances  whose  good  fellowship  was  al- 
lowed to  offset  their  intellectual  and  moral  loose- 
ness on  all  subjects  of  deepest  moment  to  the  char- 
acter and  work  of  a  Christian  man. 

Much  as  the  priest  may  do,  as  preacher,  to  check 
this  infection  which  travels  almost  upon  the  air-cur- 
rents that  sweep  by  us,  he  must  do  more,  as  the 
pastor,  who  makes  it  his  business  to  know  his  sheep 
one  by  one,  and  to  be  known  of  them  in  all  closest 
and  tenderest  overtures  of  sympathy  and  guidance. 
lie  must,  in  times  like  these,  sift,  as  well  as  num- 
ber his  people,  searching  out  the  weak  among  the 
strong  ;  and  where  he  finds  one  jjerplexed  and  half 
shaken  in  his  hold  on  the  faith  in  regard  to  these 
subjects,  let  him  grasp  that  soul  with  a  hand  warm 
with  love,  and  yet  firm  with  the  authority  that  be- 
comes the  priestly  office,  and,  pointing  out  the 
peril,  recall  to  him  the  terms  of  his  Christian  oath 
as  Christ's  soldier  and  servant,  and  prove  to  him  by 
Scripture  and  right  reason,  as  well  as  by  the  univer- 


The  Cure  of  Sotils.  159 

sal  experience  of  the  faithful,  that  unless  what  he 
has  believed  and  acted  upon  as  a  member  of  Christ's 
Body  be  true,  that  unless  sin  and  guilt,  God's  eter- 
nal law,  and  man's  immortal  life  be  what  they  are 
declared  to  be,  then  the  haK  of  his  moral  nature 
drops  into  a  hopeless  bank,  and  repentance,  remorse, 
the  judgment  to  come,  forgiveness  in  this  world, 
or  condemnation  in  the  next,  from  being  among  the 
most  awful  realities,  sink  away  into  the  category  of 
things  that  ouglit  to  die  and  make  no  sign. 

(3)  It  is  very  needful  that  all  coinmitted  to  our 
cha/rge  should  he  taught,  as  clearly  as  such  an  ab- 
struse a/nd  tangled  subject  will  allow,  the  meaning 
and  scope  of  the  supernatural.  The  question  is  a 
large  one — ]3erhaps  the  largest  and,  in  many  re- 
spects, the  most  difficult  that  can  engage  our 
thoughts.  I  shall  treat  only  such  asj)ects  of  it  as 
have  an  immediate  bearing  upon  the  practical  duties 
involved  in  the  cure  of  souls.  Both  observation 
and  experience  in  pastoral  work  prove  that  many  of 
the  most  troublesome  and  formidable  doubts 
among  our  flocks  arise  not  only  from  questions  in- 
volving the  supernatural,  but  still  more  from 
clouded   and  indefinite   notions   as  to  what  reallv 


i6o  Condones  ad  Clcriun. 

constitutes  the  supernatural  as  contrasted  with  and 
related  to  nature.  The  scepticism  of  the  daj  is 
constantly  assailing  it  as  though  it  were  a  mortal 
enemy  to  all  certain  truth.  Christian  apologists  as 
constantly  defend  it  as  of  the  last  consequence  to 
the  foundations  of  the  faith.  There  is  no  argu- 
ment, no  dispute,  on  the  border  hne  which  divides 
science  from  religion  in  which  the  reality  of  the 
supernatural  is  not  the  foremost  topic  of  debate. 
But  wide  and  deep,  on  all  sides,  as  is  the  interest 
attaching  to  the  subject,  I  doubt  whether  more  than 
a  small  minority  of  Christians  believers  would  be  able 
to  give  any  intelligent  and  satisfactory  description 
of  the  supernatural,  even  as  ordinarily  stated  or 
implied  in  scientilic  or  practical  theology.  The 
very  ambiguity  and  vagueness  of  their  views  in  re- 
gard to  it  often  puts  them  at  the  mercy  of  a  class  of 
sceptics  who  win  cheap  victories  over  the  unskilled 
and  the  unwary,  by  a  clever  manipulation  of 
terms  not  exactly  defined  or  understood  ;  or  by 
loading  down  with  unfair  uses  and  interpretations 
some  central  and  commanding  word  like  that  now 
spoken  of,  trusting  to  escape  rebuke  or  detection 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  i6i 

because  of  the  imperfect  knowledge,  or  tlie  abso- 
lute io-norance  of  those  whose  faith  is  assailed. 

It  does  not  fall  within  my  purpose  to  show  how 
largely  the  busy,  restless,  money-lo^^ng,  pleasure- 
seeking  spirit  of  the  age  has  depressed  in  some, 
and  deadened  in  others,  the  sense  of  things  invisible 
and  eternal.  It  is  enough  that  I  allude  briefly  to 
what  is  said  of  the  supernatural  by  schools  of 
thought  avowedly  or  covertly  antagonistic  to  Chris- 
tianity. These  range  all  the  way  from  absolute 
denial  of  its  existence  to  such  limitations  of  it  as 
would  exclude  all  the  miraculous  features  of  our 
religion,  and  leave  no  room  or  chance  for  special 
divine  intervention  of  any  sort. 

There  is  the  positivist,  who  restricts  the  source  of 
all  certain  knowledge  to  sensation.  With  him,  na- 
ture's laws  are  the  only  providence  and  obedience 
to  them  the  only  piety.  The  order  in  nature,  which 
we  are  wont  to  regard  as  the  sufficient  proof  of  a 
designing  mind  working  behind  and  through  nature, 
is  admitted  by  him,  while  in  the  same  breath  he 
denies  that  it  affords  valid  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  such  a  mind,  because  the  evidence  is  necessarily 
of  a  kind  which  cannot  be  verified  by  proof  refera- 


1 62  Conciottes  ad  Clerttm. 

ble  to  sensation,  From  this  it  inevitably  follows 
tliat,  as  tliere  is  no  sure  proof  of  the  existence  of  a 
personal  God,  it  may  be  lawfully  questioned 
whether  there  be  any  ;  that  as  there  is  nothing  bind- 
ing upon  us  except  what  can  be  proved  to  exist, 
there  is  neither  ground  nor  room  for  faith  ;  and 
that,  as  the  future  and  invasible  are  uncertain,  the 
great  business  of  man  is  to  attend  to  the  affairs  of 
the  present  world,  which  r.lone  is  certain.  Thus  the 
realm  of  the  supernatural  is  ehminated  from  the 
universe  by  this  remorseless  and  narrow  logic  of 
materialism.  There  is  nothing  left  but  nature, 
with  its  immutable  order.  Mind,  as  distinct  from 
matter,  will  and  liberty  and  moral  obligation, 
whether  as  attributes  of  God  or  man,  whether  work- 
ing above  nature  or  through  it,  are  swept  out  of 
existence.  The  miraculous  in  any  shape  is  impossi- 
ble. 

Next  comes  the  schod  of  pantheistic  naturalism 
wdiich,  moving  from  a  different  stand-point  and 
along  a  different  road  of  argument,  affirms  the  iden- 
tity of  mind  and  matter,  of  God  and  nature,  and  so 
confounds  the  two  as  to  leave  no  opportunity  for 
miraculous  interposition  in  the  order  of  the  world — 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  163 

no  room  for  supernatural  power  of  any  kind  what- 
soever. After  this,  and  as  a  somewhat  milder, 
though  equally  effective,  denial  of  the  supernatural, 
we  have  the  barren  and  illogical  deism  wliich,  ad- 
mitting the  existence  of  a  Creator,  separates  him 
so  far  from  the  creature  as  to  destroy  the  possibility 
of  intercourse  between  them.  The  universe  is  a 
mere  machine  which,  once  built  and  wound  up  by 
its  Maker,  has  no  further  use  for  him.  Law  once 
established  passes  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Law-giver. 
Nature's  order  is  unchangeable  and  iucnpable  of  in- 
terference from  without.  Here  again,  logically 
considered,  there  is  no  place  for  will,  liberty,  moral 
obligation,  or  supernatural  manifestation.  Neces- 
sarily, it  is  a  fundamental  postulate  of  all  these  the- 
ories that,  if  there  be  any  relgion,  it  must  be  the 
product  of  human  consciousness,  and  can  have,  as 
an  object  of  worship,  nothing  higher  than  itself. 
The  stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  source. 

Now,  it  is  not  these  theories,  as  such,  that  find 
a  lodgment  in  the  minds  or  endanger  the  faith  of 
believers  in  the  divine  and  supernatural ;  but  the 
half -diluted,  half -concealed  results  of  them,  filtered, 
as  they  generally  are,  through  much  of  the  current 


164  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

popular  literature  of  the  day.  It  is  by  these  that 
persons  of  simple  faith  are  first  perplexed,  then  de- 
ceived, and  finally  misled.  The  poison  is  in  their 
Llood  before  they  know  it.  With  little  or  no  antece- 
dent thought  or  reasoning,  quite  unconscious  of  any 
decided  tendency  in  that  direction,  they  find 
themselves,  with  surprise  and,  perhaps,  with  pain, 
induced  to  question  the  miraculous  attestations  of  the 
Gospel  and  to  doubt  the  reality  of  all  supernatural 
signs.  Before  they  know  it,  the  head  begins  to  con- 
tradict the  heart.  Such  reasoning  as  they  are  capa- 
ble of,  resting  upon  one-sided  premises,  begins  to 
be  arrayed  against  the  profound  est  instincts  and  as- 
pirations of  their  souls.  Carried  thus  far,  it  re- 
quires but  a  few  steps  more  to  bring  them  face  to 
face  with  the  broad  issue  whether  Christianity  it- 
self be  anything  more  than  a  respectable  supersti- 
tion or  a  fond  dream — a  sjDlendid  delusion  of  the 
human  mind.  But  whether  or  no  any  are  swept 
out  so  far  as  this  from  their  j)roper  anchorage,  it  is 
quite  certain  that  not  a  few  among  the  faitliful  are 
sorely  troubled  by  difiiculties  springing  from  this 
source.  It  cannot  be  otherwise,  and  that  guide  of 
souls  is  at  once  bhnd  and  foolish  who  ignores  such 


The   Cure  of  Souls.  165 


difficulties,  or  fails  to  put  himself  in  a  condition  to 
grapple  with  them.  In  these  days,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible for  the  average  believer  to  escape  alto- 
gether the  influence  of  teachers  and  writers  of  com- 
manding abilities  and  extensive  scientific  attain- 
ments who  insist  that  nature's  unchangeable  order 
is  the  only  providence  ;  that  the  world  has  in  it  no 
active  intelligent  principle  of  causation,  that  phe- 
nomena are  the  only  things  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge,  and  that  these  are  bound  together  only 
as  sequences  and  by  an  invariable  and  endless  suc- 
cession. The  moment  the  mind  holds  parley  with 
such  notions  or  in  any  degree  passes  under  their 
sway,  faith  in  the  reality  of  a  special  providence 
and  in  the  value  of  prayer  in  reference  to  temporal 
affairs  begins  to  wither  ;  the  ground  and  motive  for 
confiding  petitions  addressed  to  the  Father  of 
heaven  and  earth  are  narrowed  ;  supernatural  signs, 
instead  of  becoming  an  evidence  for  religion,  be- 
come a  difficulty  ;  the  inspiration  which  guarantees 
the  truth  of  the  Sacred  Books  evaporates  into  an 
afflatus  common  to  all  the  wise  and  good  of  every 
age  and  every  race. 

Now,   how  are  we  to  meet  cases  of  this  kind, 


1 66  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

which,  ordinarily,  will  be  revealed  not  to  the 
preacher,  but  to  the  pastor  moving  among  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  his  flock  ?  Some  will  saj,  j)er- 
liaps,  with  dogmatic  promptness,  denounce  the  ten- 
dency as  a  sin  ;  drag  forth  the  doubt  from  its  hiding- 
place,  and  transfix  it  with  the  arrow  of  priestly  au- 
thority ;  assail  the  guilty  thing  as  a  temptation  of 
the  devil.  This  will  do  where  we  are  sure  that  the 
mind  we  are  dealing  with  has  been  culpably  careless 
in  its  reading  or  in  its  associates,  or  has  knowingly 
encouraged  the  evil,  habitually  welcomed  the  temp- 
tation. But  this  is  not  the  case  I  am  sup230sing, 
this  is  not  the  character  that  I  am  claiming  to  be 
worthy  of  our  sympathy  and  solicitude.  Those 
whom  I  have  in  mind  would  be  driven  first  into  in- 
dignation, then  into  despair,  and  then  into  utter 
unbelief  by  such  treatment.  The  house  has  in  it  a 
dangerous  tenant,  an  unclean  spirit.  "We  may  drive 
liim  out  for  the  moment  by  harsh  blows.;  but  we 
can  keep  him  out  only  by  putting  a  safe  tenant,  a 
clean  spirit,  in  his  place.  The  bad  can  be  expelled 
only  by  the  good,  the  false  by  the  true.  The  teach- 
ing— the  influence  which  has  produced  the  unhappy 
results — must  be  overcome  by  the  power  of  an  oppo- 


The  C^LTc  of  Sotils.  167 

site  teaching,  an  opposite  influence.  You  will  ex- 
pect from  me  only  tlie  merest  outline  of  what  is  re- 
quired. This  whole  subject,  in  its  principles  and 
its  details,  demands  the  closest  study  by  every  priest 
having  the  cure  of  souls.  He  will  be  gnilty  of  in- 
excusable negligence  if  he  fail  to  go  to  the  bottorji 
of  it,  as  well  in  its  jDhilosophical  as  its  theolgical  and 
ethical  bearings.  The  perils  of  the  time  lift  to  the 
gravity  of  a  moral  and  intellectual  crime  all  crude 
and  superficial  knowledge  in  regard  to  it. 

What,  then,  is  nature  ?  What  is  the  supernat- 
ural ?  iSTature  is  that  which  is  perpetually  being 
born  after  its  own  type.  It  is  the  realm  of  invaria- 
ble sequences.  Given  a  certain  antecedent,  and 
there  will  always  be  the  same  consequent.  It  has 
no  inherent,  self-sustained  power  to  make  itself 
other  than  it  is.  It  is  tied  up  to  uniformities  of 
phenomenal  succession.  Law  as  applied  to  it  stands 
merely  for  the  way  in  which  one  thing  follows 
another.  It  is  simply  a  mode  of  subsistence  and 
of  succession — the  only  fixed  term  between  God 
and  man.  Instead  of  being  the  whole  universe,  it 
is  only  a  part  of  it,  and  not  unlikely  a  compara- 
tively small  part  of  it. 


1 68  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  supernatural  stands  for  the 
whole  realm  of  free  agency,  of  will  power,  of  moral 
liberty,  whether  in  God  or  man.  All  power  that  is 
above  nature,  and  that  has  the  capacity  to  modify, 
suspend,  or  in  any  way  change  nature  by  working 
through  or  upon  it  from  without,  belongs  to  the 
supernatural.  In  man  that  power  is  limited  by  con- 
ditions which  limit  and  define  his  agency  in  all 
forms  and  in  all  directions.  In  God  this  power  is 
unlimited,  and  is  subject  to  no  conditions,  knows 
no  control  save  that  imposed  by  the  supreme  end 
for  which  He  created  and  governs  the  universe. 
Though  free,  because  voluntary  and  self -determin- 
ing, it  is  amenable  to  motives  and  operates  in  obe- 
dience to  law — the  law  of  moral  being  and  moral 
ends.  The  supernatural  is  always  supermaterial 
and  often  superhuTyian.  It  is  always  the  latter 
when  God  acts  either  immediately  or  mediately 
through  forms  or  agencies  appointed  by  Himself, 
these  often  including  the  free  will  of  His  creatures 
as  well  as  the  functions  and  properties  of  matter. 
Thus  defined,  it  sweeps  out  inimitably  on  all  sides  be- 
yond nature,  and  includes  immeasurably  the  largest 
as  well  as  the' highest  part  of  the  universe.     So  far 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  169 

from  being  what  those  theories  of  which  1  have 
spoken  would  represent  it — a  mere  fog-land  of  un- . 
reality,  a  region  built  upon  the  shadows  and 
dreams  and  imaginings  of  our  own  minds — the  fa- 
vorite home  and  refuge  of  magic  and  superstition, 
of  which  we  may  with  equal  assurance  affirm  or  deny 
anything  we  please — so  far  from  being  this,  it  is  the 
region  of  realities  which  transcend  those  within  the 
domain  of  the  senses,  as  much  as  the  evidential  au- 
thority of  our  own  moral  and  intellectual  conscious- 
ness transcends  that  of  mere  sensation,  or  that  of 
the  empirical  knowledge  built  upon  sensation,  or 
that  of  the  logical  understanding,  which  cannot  over- 
pass the  bounded  sphere  of  such  knowledge.  Na- 
ture is  the  slave.  It  is  predetermined  and  cannot 
of  itself  become  other  than  it  is.  We  do  not  find 
freedom,  self-determining  power,  or  the  truths  and 
motives,  the  energies  and  dignities,  the  lapses  and 
corruptions,  inseparable  from  that  freedom  and 
power,  until  we  pass  out  of  nature  into  the  super- 
natural. Man,  then,  belongs  partly  to  nature  and 
partly  to  the  supernatural.  All  not  included  in  his 
moral  being  belongs  to  the  former  ;  all  included 
in  his  moral  being — the  will,  and  that  which  ought 


170  Condones  ad  Clerwn. 

to  govern  the  will,  the  conscience — belong  to  the 
latter.  God,  on  the  other  hand,  though  He  is  in 
nature,  though  He  is  "  all  in  all,"  is  no  part  of  na- 
ture. The  creature  lives  and  moves  in  the  Creator, 
but  is  not,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  Creator,  any 
more  than  a  house  when  finished  is  part  of  the  man 
who  built  it.  Of  all  nature  God  is  the  maker  and 
builder.  However  we  may  reason  from  the  power 
that  creates  to  the  thing  created,  or  vice  versa^ 
they  are  distinct  entities,  and  cannot  be  confounded 
without  confounding  the  necessary  laws  of  thought, 
as  well  as  the  fundamental  conditions  oi  mind  and 
matter. 

Now,  if  the  existence  of  a  tree  will  in  man  be 
granted,  we  have  a  ]30stulate  on  mIucIi  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  supernatural,  so  far  as  we  require  to 
know  it,  whether  merely  supermaterial  or  entirely 
superhuman,  can  be  built.  Aiftl,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  this  be  denied,  "  neither  the  supernatural  in  any 
possible  form,  miraculous,  or  otherwise,  nor  any 
other  question  of  religion  or  morality,  is  worth  con- 
tending for."  ]^ow,  to  give  what  has  been  said  in 
a  general  way,  on  this  subject,  a  practical  direction, 
let  us  see  in  a  few  words,  how  it  may  IpQ  made  to 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  171 

disentangle  and  light  ujj  our  thinking  on  that  focal 
point  of  supernatural  power  in  its  relation  to  Chris- 
tianity, i.e.,  the  miraculous.  That  we  have  a  free 
will  is  a  matter  of  personal  consciousness.  It  is  as 
indubitable  as  our  personal  identity.  It  is  not  more 
certain  that  A  is  not  B,  than  it  is  that  A  and  B  are 
free  agents.  But  in  the  free  will  of  man  we  all 
have  tlie  experience,  and  if  experience,  positive  evi- 
dence, of  a  power  which,  however  inferior  in  its 
range,  is  similar  in  kind  to  that  which  is  supposed 
to  operate  in  producing  a  miracle.  What  the  less 
actually  does  within  the  domain  of  our  experience, 
the  greater  in  degree,  while  the  same  in  kind,  may 
do,  for  adequate  reason,  in  the  domain  of  faith. 
"  In  the  will  of  man  we  have  the  solitary  instance 
of  an  ehlcient  cause  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
term,  acting  among  and  along  with  the  physical 
causes  of  the  material  world,  and  producing  results 
which  would  not  have  been  brought  about  by  any 
invariable  sequence  of  physical  causes  left  to  their 
own  action.  We  have  evidence,  also,  of  an  elastic- 
ity, so  to  sjDeak,  in  the  constitution  of  nature  which 
permits  the  influence  of  human  power  on  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  world  to  be  exercised  or  suspended 


172  Condones  ad  Clerinn, 


at  will  without  affecting  tlie  stability  of  the  whole. 
We  have  thus  a  precedent  for  allowing  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  similar  interference  of  a  higher  Will  on  a 
grander  scale  provided  for  by  a  similar  elasticity  of 
the  matter  subjected  to  its  influence.  Such  inter- 
ferences (of  the  supernatural  with  nature),  whether 
produced  by  human  or  by  superhuman  will,  are  not 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  matter  ;  but  neither  are  they 
the  results  of  those  laws.  They  are  the  work  of  an 
Agent  who  is  independent  of  the  laws,  and  who, 
therefore,  neither  obeys  nor  disobeys  them,*  Again 
says  the  same  writer  :  "  We  may  doubtless  believe 
that  God  from  the  beginning  so  ordered  the  consti- 
tution of  the  world  as  to  leave  room  for  the  exercise 
of  those  miraculous  jDowers  which  He  foresaw  would 
at  a  certain  time  be  exercised,  just  as  He  has  left 
similar  room  for  the  exercise,  within  narrower  limits, 
of  the  human  will.  The  fundamental  conception, 
which  is  indispensable  to  a  true  apprehension  of  the 
nature  of  a  miracle,  is  that  of  the  distinction  of  mind 
from  inatter,  and  of  the  power  of  the  former, 
as  a  personal,  conscious,  and  free  agent,  to  influence 
the  phenomena  of  the  latter.  We  are  conscious  of 
*  Deaa  Mausel  on  Miracles.     "  Aids  lo  Faith,"  pp.  28-30. 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  173 

this  power  in  ourselves  ;  we  experience  it  in  onr 
every-day  life  ;  but  we  experience  also  its  restric- 
tion within  certain  narrow  limits,  the  principal  one 
being  that  man's  influence  upon  foreign  bodies  is 
only  possible  through  the  instrumentality  of  his 
own  body .  Beyond  these  limits  is  the  region  of 
the  miraculous.  In  at  least  the  great  majority  of 
the  miracles  recorded  in  Scripture,  the  supernatural 
element  appears,  not  in  the  relations  of  matter  to 
matter,  but  in  that  of  matter  to  mind — in  the  exer- 
cise of  a  personal  power  transcending  the  limits  of 
man's  will."  This  is  the  key  to  the  philosoj)hical 
side  of  the  whole  Christian  argument  for  miracles. 
It  may  be  put  in  other  forms  and  greatly  expanded 
in  various  directions,  but  substantially  this  is  the 
ground  on  which  it  rests. 

But  from  this  particular  application  of  the  super- 
natural in  its  relation  to  nature,  we  may  advance  to 
one  vastly  broader  and  deeper — to  one  which,  when 
really  apprehended,  not  only  fortifies  our  behef  in 
the  supernatural  as  a  realm  above  nature,  but  our 
almost  instinctive  conviction  that  there  is  no  com- 
petent interpreter  of  nature  but  the  supernatural, 
of  the  seen  but  the  unseen,  of  the  material  but  the 


174  Condones  ad  Clerum. 


spirJtnal,  of  tlie  temporal  but  the  eternal.  And 
just  this,  broadly  stated,  is  the  teaching  of  the 
written  Word  of  God.  If  proof  were  needed  that 
mind  is  a  truer  image  of  God  than  nnattei^^  and 
that  it  is  only  as  we  know  mind  that  we  can  know 
matter,  it  is  found  in  the  fact  that  what  are  called 
the  sciences  of  invariable  succession  have  borrowed 
the  7ery  terms  they  use,  i.e.^  law,  order ^  andcaws^, 
froj  1  the  science  which  has  to  do  with  will-power 
aG'f^  conscience,  moral  action  and  moral  duty.  As 
applied  to  nature — to  matter — they  have  a  figurative 
meaning,  and  it  is  only  when  they  are  used  in  con- 
nection with  moral  existence  and  relation  they  have 
a  literal  meaning.  "  What  do  we  know  of  law  as 
law  except  by  and  through  our  personal  conscious- 
ness of  duty  ?  The  conception  comes  to  us  not 
through  our  knowledge  of  what  is,  but  through  our 
knowledge,  or  raX\\Qv  feeling — discernment — of  what 
ought  to  he.  Again,  what  know  we  of  causation 
save  by  our  experience  of  the  creative,  fashioning 
energy  of  our  personal  wills  ?  So  with  order 
unity,  totality.  We  find  them  in  nature  only  be- 
cause they  are  antecedently  in  our  own  consciousness 
as  the  witnesses  of  the  indivisible  seK — the  human 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  1 75 

personality."  It  is  that  in  man  which  is  above  na- 
ture— supermaterial,  supernatural,  the  very  image 
of  the  God  and  Father  of  all,  as  wiU,  wisdom,  good- 
ness, speaking  through  man,  as  well  as  through 
Providence  and  Revelation,  of  law,  causation,  order, 
unity — ^it  is  this  that  lifts  "all  that  we  see  from 
Chaos  into  Cosmos,  from  the  many  into  the  one, ' ' 
and  spreads  out  all  nature  as  one  mighty  parable 
of  the  attributes  and  purposes  of  God. 

Much  as  I  have  said  under  this  head,  I  am  aware 
that  I  have  scarcely  accomj)lished  the  aim  I  had  in 
view,  which  was  to  indicate  the  line  of  thouglit  and 
inquiry  to  be  taken  up  by  the#guide  of  souls  who 
seeks  to  be  even  tolerably  well  equipped  for  his 
work.  The  desire  for  brevity  has,  I  fear,  deprived 
some  of  these  statements — not  my  logic  (for  that  has 
not  been  attempted) — of  the  clearness  needful  to 
their  value  as  helps  to  the  further  prosecution  of 
the  subject  by  those  charged  with  the  cure  of  souls. 

(4) "  I  conclude  what  I  have  to  say  on  the  general 
mode  of  dealing  with  sceptical  tendencies  among 
our  flocks,  with  a  few  suggestions  on  several  closely 
'elated  topics. 

Before  we  appeal  to,  or  attempt  to  put  in  con- 


176  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

^ncing  array,  the  Cliristian  evidences  in  any  given 
case,  the  following  points  should  be  tlioroughly 
cleared  np,  and  definitely  established  in  the  minds 
with  whom  we  have  to  deal. 

(1)  Leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  kind  of  evidence  of 
which  alone  the  subject  is  susceptible,  and  which 
alone  can  be  expected.  No  moral  or  religious  sub- 
ject is  capable  of  demonstrative  proof.  The  only 
approach  possible  to  what  is  equivalent  to  such 
proof  is  necessarily  along  the  road  of  cumulative 
probability.  One  line  of  proof  standing  apart  may 
be  too  weak  to  establish  conviction,  though  strong  in 
itself.  The  same  nr^y  be  true  of  even  two  or  three. 
But  when  one  individual  part,  or  many  individual 
parts  of  the  whole  scheme  may  fail,  all  the  parts, 
bound  together  in  organic  unity,  the  whole  com- 
pacted and  strengthened  by  that  which  each  joint 
supplies,  will  not,  cannot  fail.  One  single  strand 
or  a  score  of  strands  may  not  hold  the  ship  to  lier 
moorings,  but  the  cable  woven  of  a  hundred  strands 
will. 

Again,  not  only  must  the  proofs  be  collected  and 
organized  into  a  single  whole  in  order  that  the 
blows  they  deliver  shall  be  effective,  but  the  qxial- 


The  Cure  of  Souls,  177 

ity  of  the  evidence,  as  a  whole ^  must  be  clearly 
manifested.  The  evidence  which  sustains  Chris- 
tianity is  all  such  as  man  is  competent  to  consider. 
It  invites  him  to  calculations  of  probability  precise- 
ly similar  to  those  which  enter  into  his  every-day 
life,  and  without  which  he  would  be  powerless  to 
direct  his  private  affairs  for  a  single  hour.  It  is 
but  the  repetition  of  the  task  familiar  to  courts  and 
juries  in  meting  out  justice  between  man  and  man. 
The  verdict  is  given  on  the  facts  as  adduced,  and 
after  sifting,  and  weighing  what  sundry  witnesses 
testify  about  the  facts. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  shown  and  insisted 
on  that  the  objections  to  Christianity  spring  mainly, 
if  not  entirely,  from  our  ignorance  and  presumption. 
They  assume  that  we  know  more  than  we  do  or 
can  know  of  the  modes  of  the  Divine  administra- 
tion— of  what  God  may  have  permitted — of  what 
is  possible  and  impossible — of  the  ultimate  develop- 
ment of  an  imperfectly  developed  system  and  of  its 
relations  with  the  whole  universe.  It  scarcely  need 
be  added  that  these  considerations,  which  are  of 
such  vital  moment  in  all  sound  and  candid  thinking 
on  this  great  theme,  were  developed  and  enforced 


178  Condones  ad  Cleritm. 

by  the  masterly  genius  of  Bishop  Butler,  and  with 
a  style  of  reasoning  which,  though  now  quite  out 
of  fashion  in  some  quarters,  is  as  invincible  to-day 
as  it  was  in  the  generation  in  which  it  first  appeared, 
(2)  The  rule  so  universally  observed  in  the  affairs 
of  life,  viz.,  that  our  beliefs  and  convictions  must 
be  determined  by  tlie  weight  of  evidence^  even  though 
every  difficulty  l)e  not  met.  The  only  question  fairly 
at  issue  must  ever  be,  whether  the  general  evidence 
for  Christianity  outweighs  the  difficulties  which 
cannot  be  separated  from  its  truths.  It  opened,  as 
from  its  nature  it  must  do,  a  wide  field  for  objec- 
tions. These  objections  are  not  only  numerous, 
but  in  some  instances  unanswerable  by  finite  knowl- 
edge. If  set  aside  at  all,  it  must  be  by  proofs  so 
comprehensive  as  to  sweep  around  them,  while  per- 
mitting them  to  stand  as  rocks  in  mid-ocean,  which, 
though  themselves  unmoved,  do  not  hinder  the 
currents  rolling  around  and  by  them  ;  or  as  cavern- 
ous depths  in  the  mountain,  which,  though  them- 
selves unlighted,  raise  no  question  that  the  great 
mass  within  which  they  are  buried  is  bathed  by  the 
rays  of  the  sun.  "While  it  is  the  avowed  aim  of  un- 
belief not  only  to  discover  objections,  but  to  mag- 


The  Ctire  of  Souls.  1 79 

nif  J  and  exaggerate  them  when  discovered,  it  is  no 
part  of  our  duty  to  ignore  or  belittle  thera,  however 
we  may  seek  to  reduce  them  to  their  pro2)er  limits. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  here,  and  it  has  been  here 
for  a  long  series  of  centuries.  It  has  proved  itseK 
to  be,  beyond  all  doubt,  the  most  commanding  and 
continuous  force  in  all  history.  This  is  the  fact. 
How  can  it  be  accounted  for  ?  It  claims  (and  the 
claim  is  an  integral  part  of  the  fact  itself),  a  super- 
natural, a  Divine  origin,  certified  by  the  miraculous 
interventions  of  its  Author,  as  well  as  by  its  own 
contents.  Kow,  the  one  broad,  fundamental  issue 
is,  whether  there  is  any  satisfactory  way  of  explain- 
ing the  fact  except  by  admitting  this  claim,  in  spite 
of  all  the  objections  that  human  ingenuity  can  al- 
lege against  it.  Determine  this,  and  all  side-issues 
drop  into  their  place  and  may  be  left  to  take  care 
of  themselves. 

(3)  Passing  over  textual,  chronological,  historical 
discrepancies  in  the  Bible,  of  which  modern  criticism 
has  made  the  most  in  its  power,  as  a  subject  too 
intricate  and  extensive  to  be  treated  in  this  connec- 
tion, I  come  to  what  are  known  as  the  moral  diffi- 
culties of  both  Testaments — difficulties  which,  more 


i8o  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

than  any  other,  trouble  the  faithful  in  their  own 
thinking  and  in  their  discussions  and  controversies 
with  unbelievers. 

These  difficulties  are  connected,  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, with  God's  dealings  and  commands  and  with 
the  conduct  and  character  of  agents  chosen  by 
Him  to  execute  special  missions  or  to  indite  por- 
tions of  the  Sacred  Records  ;  also  with  the  tone  and 
language  of  certain  books — as  the  imprecatory  pas- 
sages in  the  Psalms  ;  and  in  the  !New  Testament, 
with  our  Lord's  ignorance  of  things  which,  on  the 
supposition  of  His  omniscience,  He  could  not  but 
have  known  ;  with  the  alleged  radical  diversities 
and  personal  changes  of  tone,  of  doctrine,  and  of 
expectation  among  the  apostles,  notwithstanding 
they  had  the  promise  that  they  should  ' '  be  guided 
by  the  Spirit  into  all  truth. ' '  And  then  there  is:' 
the  difficulty  of  explaining  the  Anthroj)omorjphism 
under  which  God  appears  in  the  Bible,  and  of  de- 
termining how  far  the  Christian  theory  of  it  is  ap- 
plicable to  other  things  mentioned  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

There  is  the  difficulty,  too,  arising  from  the  Di- 
vine commendation  of  persons  as  just  and  righteous. 


The  Cure  of  Soids.  1 8 1 

some  of  whose  acts  are  known  to  have  been  unjust 
and  unrighteous  ;  or  that  arising  from  the  case  of 
Abraham  sacrificing  his  son,  or  from  the  case  of  the 
•judicial  action  of  thelsraehtes  in  extirjDating  various 
nations  under  the  command  of  a  God  of  righteous- 
ness, or  from  that  of  Jael  in  the  treacherous  mur- 
der of  Sisera,  or,  generally,  from  the  moral  imper- 
fection of  the  Mosaic  system,  notwithstanding  it 
claimed  to  be  at  once  the  revelation  and  ordinance 
of  God,  who  ie  perfect  in  all  His  ways. 

I  state  some  of  the  worst  of  this  class  of  difficul- 
ties, not  with  a  view  to  attempting  tlieir  sohition, 
but  simply  for  the  jDurpose  of  insisting  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  guide  of  souls,  in  these  troubled  days, 
to  qualify  himself,  by  reading  and  study,  to  answer 
them  wherever  they  may  be  met.  They  are  serious, 
but  not  insuperable.  They  may  perplex,  but  they 
should  not  distress,  any  soul.  They  may  excite 
doubt  ,  but  they  should  not  shake  conviction.  Our 
recent  hterature  has  taken  up  the  whole  subject,  and 
argued  and  reargued  it,  with  profound  learning  and 
convincing  logic.  What  has  been  done  in  this  line 
should  be  as  familiar  to  us  as  the  alphabet.  Every 
difficulty  has  not  vanished,  but  certainly  the  most 


1 82  Concioiies  ad  Clerum. 

formidable,  and  those  over  which  modern  douht  has 
uttered  its  most  triumphant  cries,  are,  in  virtue  of 
what  has  been  written  of  late,  very  much  less  for- 
midable than  they  once  seemed.* 

(4)  No  pains  should  be  spared  in  urging  wise  and 
timely  cautions  upon  those  of  our  people,  who  are 
unduly  moved  by  the  various  phases  of  the  conflict 
now  going  on  between  the  recent  knowledge  gath- 
ered from  all  the  fields  of  modern  exploration,  and 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  What  I  mean  will  sufficiently 
appear  in  very  few  words.  All  knowledge  claim- 
ing to  be  such  is  not  yet  finally  ascertained  to  be 
knowledge,  t     The  present  tone  and  attitude  of  sci- 

*  It  is  enough  to  mention  with  special  commendation,  for 
their  clear  style  and  vigorous  treatment  of  these  questions, 
"  The  Bo3'le  Lectures  for  1871  and  1873,"  by  James  Augustus 
Hessey,  D.C.L.,  Archdeacou  of  Middlesex,  and  with  still 
more  emphatic  approval,  Canon  JMnzley's  "  Ruling  Ideas  in 
Early  Ages,  and  their  Relation  to  Old  Testament  Faith" — a 
work  the  gravity  and  power  of  whose  reasoning  recall  the  no- 
blest pages  of  Bishop  Butler's  "  Analogy." 

f  A  recent  able  writer  says  :  "  It  is  remarkable  how  far 
physical  science  often  falls  short  of  satisfying  the  require- 
ments it  rigorously  imposes  upon  itself,  although  some  men 
of  science  seem  to  be  singularly  unmindful  of  the  fact. " 

There  is  scarcely  any  limit  to  the  instances  that  might  be 
cited  in  proof  of  this.     Haeckel's  "  History  of  Creation"  is  a 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  1 83 

ence  toward  the  Scriptures  are  not  borne  out  by  its 
actual  achievements.  Every  day  discloses  how 
much  it  has  given  way  to  dogmatism,  and  how 
much  it  has  drawn  upon  conjecture  and  imagina- 
tion. It  is  yet  busily  engaged  in  revising  many  of 
its  over-confident  conclusions,  as  well  as  in  pushing 

noteworthy  case.  It  is  simply  auiaziug  with  what  audacity 
this  author  assumes  tlie  unreasoning  credulity  of  his  readers. 
His  mechanical  and  monistic  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  uni- 
verse rests  largely  on  unsupported,  unverified  conjecture  as  to 
the  spontaneous  generation  of  the  first  life-cell,  and  as  to  a  con- 
tinent of  fossil  manlike  apes  buried  somewhere  under  the  In- 
dian Ocean,  and  as  to  a  hundred  other  things  whicli  have 
hardly  the  plausibility  of  clever  guesses. 

Professor  Huxley,  notwithstaudiug  he  saw  "  Extinguished 
theologians  lying  about  the  cradle  of  every  science  as  the 
strangled  snakes  lay  beside  that  of  Hercules,"  is  a  very  con- 
spicuous transgressor  in  this  way.  No  one  who  heard  his 
American  addresses  will  soon  forget  his  illogical  and  unscien- 
tific treatment  of  his  famous  primitive  American  horse,  whose 
five  toes  were  evoWed  ioto  a  club-foot,  as  he  claimed,  this 
club-foot  being  triumphantly  cited  as  the  sufiicient  demonstra- 
tion of  the  hypothesis  of  creatioa  by  evolution,  i.e.,  a  very 
limited  variation  of  species  being  assumed  as  the  proof  of  the 
transmutation  of  species  throughout  the  universe. 

Professor  Tyndall  has  also  grievously  broken  the  funda- 
mental canon  of  modern  investigation.  In  his  celebrated  ad- 
dress at  Birmiugham,  a  few  years  ago,  while  admitting  that 
the  phenomena  of  mind  and  will  could  not  be  amenable  to  the 


184  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

its  advance  into  new  realms,  where,  any  day,  it 
may  suddenly  drop  upon  some  secret  of  nature 
Avliich  will  modify  radically  tlie  whole  fabric  of  its 
labors. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  us  remember  that  it  would 
be  sreat  rashness  in  us  to  affirm  that  we  have  ex- 

canons  of  physical  science,  be  yet  went  on  to  discuss  with  the 
coolest  assurance  these  same  phenomena  precisely  as  though 
they  could  be  tested  and  judged  by  the  laws  of  matter.  Again, 
not  a  little  of  Herbert  Spencer's  pretentious  scepticism  fades 
away  under  the  application  of  his  own  declaration  as  to  "  Ex- 
cessive confidence  in  reason,  as  compared  with  simpler  modes 
of  intellectual  activity."  The  illustrations  might  be  indefi- 
nitely multiplied  from  the  pages  of  the  most  reputable  scientists 
of  the  day.  We  have  had  instructive  essays  on  the  mutability 
and  mortality  of  literature.  We  might  have  still  more  in- 
structive ones  on  the  mutability  and  mortality  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  science.  The  Ptolemaic  gave  way  to  the  Copernican 
theory  of  the  universe,  Descartes'  theory  of  vortices  to  Sir 
Isaac  Newton's  theory  of  attraction,  the  corpuscular  hypoth- 
esis of  light  to  the  undulatory  hypothesis,  the  convulsionists 
in  geology  to  the  uniformitarians.  And  now  we  are  in  the 
midst  of  the  war  between  creationists  and  evolutionists  in  nat- 
ural history— both  parties  being  equally  sanguine  of  victory. 
Mental  science  has  exhibited  even  greater  vicissitudes  and 
fluctuations,  having  passed,  within  a  century,  from  the  highest 
ground  of  supernaturalism  to  a  point  where  the  instincts  of 
animals  and  the  moral  nature  of  man  threaten  to  become  one 
and  the  same  general  subject  of  study. 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  185 

hausted  the  meaning  of  the  whole  of  God's  writ- 
ten Word.*  Long-received  interpretations  of  a 
few  passages  have  ah*eady  been  changed.  Doubt- 
less, some  interpretations  now  current  will  un- 
dergo a  like  change  in  the  near  or  far-off  future. 

But  thus  far  no  changes  have  occurred  which 
have  affected  one  hair's  breadth  the    fundamental 


In  connection  with  this  line  of  thouglit  it  would  be  well  to  read 
carefully  Professor  Jevons'  "  Principles  of  Science,"  whicti 
has  passed  into  a  text-book  of  scientific  method.  He  does  not 
hesitate  to  say,  as  his  deep  conviction,  "  that  before  a  vigorous 
logical  scrutiny  the  reign  of  law  will  prove  to  be  an  unveri- 
fied hj'pothesis,  the  uniformity  of  nature,  an  ambiguous  ex- 
pression, the  certainty  of  our  scientific  inferences,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, a  delusion. "  Andfurther,  "  That  our  experience  is  of  the 
most  limited  character  compared  with  what  there  is  to  learu, 
while  our  mental  powers  seem  to  fall  infinitely  short  of  the  task 
of  comprehending  and  explaining  fully  the  nature  of  any  one 
object." 

*  "  It  is  not  at  all  incredible  that  a  book,  which  has  been  so 
long  in  the  possession  of  mankind,  should  contain  many  truths 
as  yet  undiscerned.  For  all  the  same  phenomena  and  the  same 
faculties  of  investigation,  from  which  such  great  discoveries  in 
natural  knowledge  have  been  made  in  the  present  and  in  the 
last  age,  were  equally  in  the  possession  of  mankind  several 
thousand  years  before."— Bishop  Butler. 

The  truth  of  these  words  has  been  often  illustrated  since  his 
day,  and  it  will  be  so  quite  as  often  in  coming  time. 


1 86  Co7iciones  ad  Clcrum. 

principles,  tlie  essential  mysteries,  of  the  faith  ;  and 
it  is,  in  the  nature  of  tlie  ease,  impossible  that  any 
discoveries  in  the  world  of  sensation,  of  physical 
fact,  of  necessary  material  sequences,  can  undermine 
things  belonging  to  a  totally  different  order  of  be- 
ing— the  kingdom  of  moral  liberty  and  of  God's 
dealings  with  His  own  children  whom  He  hath  re- 
deemed unto  life  eternal  by  the  precious  blood  of 
His  own  dear  Son.^" 

*  The  chief  characteristic  of  whjit  is  called  "  the  modern 
spirit"  is  the  demand  for  verification  by  an  appeal  to  facts. 
Theology  is  perfectly  willing  to  submit  to  this  appeal.  As 
much  as  any  other  science,  it  is  deduced  from  facts,  however 
its  mysterious  foundations  may  rest  upon  authority.  As  much 
as  any  other  science,  it  offers  to  verify  its  doctrines  by  facts — 
facts  which  are  not  the  less  facts  because  they  belong  to  the 
realm  of  the  supernatural. 

But  in  this  process  of  verification  it  insists  upon  the  vigor- 
ous observance  of  that  fundamental  canon  of  all  sound  inves- 
tigation, viz.,  that  all  facts  and  doctrines,  whether  of  religion  or 
of  science,  must  be  verified  within  the  sphere  to  wliich  they  re- 
spectively belong.  Those  of  science  cannot  be  verified  within 
the  domain  of  religion,  and,  xice  versa,  those  of  religion  cannot 
be  verified  within  tlie  domain  of  science.  A  late  profound 
thinker  has  justly  said,  and  it  is  a  proposition  which  cannot 
be  disputed,  that  one  department  of  knowledge  cannot  give 
laws  to  another.  "  Mathematics  cannot  receive  laws  from 
chemistry,  nor  physics  from  biology.     Phenomena  are  inde- 


The  Cure  of  Souls.  187 

Speaking  generally,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed 
that,  wide-spread  and  profound  as  may  have  been 
the  agitations  and  upheavals  produced  in  the  do- 
main of  religion  by  the  progress  of  modern  knowl- 
edge, the  grand  result  thus  far  has  been,  not  to  un- 
settle, but  more  firmly  to  establish,  the  foundations 
of  Christianity.  Certainly,  it  has  more  disciples,  is 
attracting  more    of  the  world's    attention,   enters 

pendent  as  well  as  inlerdependeut. "  The  conclusions  arrived 
at  in  every  science  are  valid  only  within  the  range  of  the  data 
on  which  they  rest.  Now  religion,  or  theology,  the  scientific 
form  of  it  is  ready  to  verify  itself  in  answer  to  the  demand  of 
the  modern  spirit,  if  this  canou  be  duly  observed.  Its  truths 
belong  to  the  sphere  of  inward  experience  ;  they  are  spiritual, 
and  thej^  must  be  spiritually  discerned.  "  If  any  man  will  do 
the  will  of  my  Father,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether 
it  be  of  God."  History  has  its  own  tests  of  the  facts  within 
its  domain  ;  so  likewise  chemistry,  physiolog}',  geology,  as- 
tronomy. Religion  stands  upon  the  same  footing.  Its  tests 
are  its  own,  and  none  others  can  be  used.  The  religious  life 
must  be  lived  by  him  who  seeks  to  verify  the  truths  out  of 
which  that  life  springs.  As  well  judge  the  laws  of  color  by 
the  laws  of  sound,  as  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  by  experi- 
ments in  the  laboratory  of  science.  Nothing  is  more  unfair, 
more  uncritical,  more  unscientific  in  the  whole  course  of  mod- 
ern free  thought,  than  its  systematic  and  contemptuous  disre- 
gard of  this  indisputable  canon  of  verification  in  all  depart- 
ments of  inquiry. 


Cojtczones  ad  Cleruni. 


more  largely  into  the  tliouglit  and  conduct  of  man- 
kind, is  more  frequently  brought  to  the  front  for 
praise  or  blame,  is  pushing  its  conquests  over  dis- 
tant continents  and  far-off  islands  of  the  sea  more 
vigorously,  is,  in  all  ways,  doing  more  to  elevate 
and  comfort  humanity,  than  in  any  past  century  of 
its  existence.  These  surely  are  strange  symptoms 
of  that  moribund  condition  into  which  certain  ad- 
vanced thinkers  insist  that  it  has  passed.  If  these 
be  the  signs  and  proofs  of  decay,  where  shall  we 
look  for  those  of  growth  and  power  ? 

At  the  beginning  of  tlie  discussion  of  this  part  of 
my  general  subject,  I  gave  it  as  my  opinion  that 
the  tendency  to  doubt  this  or  that  part,  or  the  whole 
of  our  religion,  was  gaining  ground  among  those 
within  our  borders,  and  that  the  evidences  of  it  were 
too  apparent  to  be  denied.  If  it  be,  it  constitutes 
the  worst  peril  that  we  have  to  deal  with,  because  it 
is  an  enemy  concealed  within  the  camp,  moving 
about  in  silence  and  disguise,  and,  because  so  mov- 
ing, all  the  more  dangerous.  My  conviction  is  the 
result  of  extensive  observation  of  the  habits,  the 
sympathies,  the  moral  and  intellectual  drift,  of  those 
under  twenty-five  years  of  age—  of  us  and  among  us 


The  C2Lre  of  Souls.  1 89 

by  Baptism  and  Confirmation,  the  sign  of  tlie  Cross 
on  their  brows,  the  badge  of  the  Christian  voca- 
tion on  their  lives,  the  standard  of  Christ's  king- 
dom in  their  hands  ;  and  yet  away  down  below  the 
surface,  coiled  up  among  their  secret  thoughts,  some- 
times ominously  lisped  with  bated  breath  among 
their  companions  or  in  the  family  circle,  seldom  con- 
fessed to  those  ha%ang  authority  in  the  Church,  lies 
a  more  or  less  vaguely  shaped  distrust,  a  half  para- 
lyzing suspicion  of  great  truths, 

"  Which  make  us  to  ourselves 
Aud  to  our  God  more  dear." 

It  is  high  time,  indeed,  that  our  pastorate  should 
arouse  from  its  apathy  and  gird  on  the  weapons  of 
its  power.  It  must  not  wait  to  hear  ;  it  must  go 
out  and  listen.  It  must  not  wait  to  be  sought  by, 
it  must  go  out  and  seek,  the  souls  over  whom  this 
cloud  is  settling,  and  pour  into  them  the  light  of 
Him  who  declared  Himself  the  true  "  light  that 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh   into  the  world. ' ' 

It  has  been  my  wish  and  purpose  not  only  to  call  at- 
tention to  this  danger  and  to  speak  of  it  in  terms  of 
grave  apprehension  ;  but  also  to  offer  such  consid- 
erations as  would  serve  to  show  the  proper  tone  and 


190  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

direction  of  our  efforts  to  stay  the  evil  ;  -vvitliout  at- 
tempting a  full  discussion  or  an  elaborate  treatment 
of  any  one  of  the  topics  under  review.  However  I 
may  have  failed  in  the  latter,  I  shall,  at  least,  have 
discharged  my  duty  as  to  the  former. 


III. 

THE    GKAGE    OF    ORDINATION: 

HOW    TO    QUICKEN    AND    DETELOP    IT. 

"We  come  together  on  divers  occasions  and  for 
divers  purjjoses  unlike  the  present.  We  meet  in 
Convention  to  transact  tlie  business  of  the  Diocese. 
We  meet  socially  to  strengthen  the  bond  of  good- 
fellowship,  and  to  stimulate  mental  activity  by  the 
interchange  of  the  fruits  of  study  and  scholarship. 
We  meet  often  to  care  for  our  Charities  and  Mis- 
sions. I  am  thankful  for  so  many  opportunities 
for  assembling  together  to  consider  joint  interests 
and  to  set  in  order  the  things  committed  to  our  offi- 
cial guardianship.  Each  and  all  do  good,  and  none 
of  them  should  be  neglected.  But  the  present  oc- 
casion stands  widely  apart  from  the  rest.  The  call 
for  it  is  a  peculiar  one,  the  attendance  is  voluntary, 
the  Conference  is  private  in  the  sense  of  not  being 
open  to  reporters  for  the  press,  the  bishop  sits  in 
the  midst  of  his  presbyters  to  give  counsel  on  sub- 


192  Condones  ad  Cleruin. 

jects  j)ersonal  to  lis  all,  as  ambassadors  of  Christ  and 
stewards  of  the  Divine  Mysteries.     God  grant  tliat 
none  may  go  away  without  feeling  that  it  was  good , 
to  be  here. 

I.  The  ministry  is  a  vocation,  but  before  tliat  it  is  a 
gift  of  the  Uoly  Ghost ;  and  we  are  here  to  inquire 
of  one  another,  in  sincerity  of  heart  and  with  a  deep 
sense  of  our  infirmities,  how  it  fares  with  that  gift, 
what  we  are  doing  or  leaving  undone  in  that  voca- 
tion. Every  calling  has  an  outer  crust  of  routine 
which  offers  a  genial  soil  for  the  growth  of  mechan- 
ical and  perfunctory  action.  In  spite  of  its  sacred 
source,  its  holy  surroundings,  and  its  lofty  purpose, 
tlie  Christian  ministry  is  no  exception.  To  rise  to 
its  level  requires  an  effort  that  overtasks  even  the 
devoutest  minds.  To  bring  it  down  to  our  own  level 
is  the  inevitable  and  often  the  successful  temptation 
pressing  heavily  upon  us  all.  How  we  have  met 
this  temptation  belongs  to  the  secret  record  of  our 
lives,  open  only  to  the  eye  of  God.  "  Who  art  thou 
that  judgest  another  ?"  But  while  we  may  not  at- 
tempt this,  we  may  consider  the  common  peril  that 
besets  us  and  try  to  take  up  one  another's  burdens. 
Scarcely  any  two  of  us  are  strong  or  weak,  tried  or 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  193 

comforted,  blinded  or  enlightened,  in  the  same  way 
or  in  the  same  degree.  If,  then,  onr  mutual  counsel 
is  to  be  wise  and  useful,  it  must  be  thought  out  and 
given  on  the  principle  of  compensation — each  offer- 
ing somethins:  of  his  O'wti  to  him  that  hath  not.  It 
is  by  this  law  that  Christ's  Body  as  a  whole  minis- 
ters of  its  power  and  riches  to  all  its  members,  and 
then  calls  upon  them  to  minister  to  each  other  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
hath  dealt  to  every  man. 

None  in  our  calling,  in  any  age,  can  think  deeply 
of  its  wants  and  trials  and  dangers  without  falling 
back  upon  St.  Paul's  words  to  Timothy.  Certainly, 
there  are  no  other  such  Avords  in  Christian  history. 
They  have  the  freshness  and  fitness  of  to-day  and 
bum  with  a  fire  which  will  never  die.  Among 
them  is  that  exhortation  which  sj)ecially  pertains  to 
us  here  and  now.  ' '  Therefore  I  put  thee  in  remem- 
brance that  thou  stir  up  the  gift  of  God  that  is  in 
thee  by  the  laying  on  of  my  hands. ' '  (2  Timothy 
1  :  6.)  The  force  of  the  original  is  somewhat  tamed 
by  the  translation,  because  it  does  not  give  the  full 
figure  used  by  the  Apostle,  ava<l,co7tvf)nv.,  to  give 
new  life  to  a  flame  already  burning,  to  intensify  an 


194  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 

already  kindling  heat,  to  push  aside  the  embers  and 
open  up  the  live  coals  to  tlie  outer  air.  The  gift  of 
God  is  not  only  the  outward  commission,  the  Priest- 
ly Office,  but  the  Grace  which  sanctifies  it  and  fills  it 
with  divine  energy.  There  was  no  reason  to  doubt 
Timothy's  abundant  zeal,  and  yet  he  was  told  there 
was  room  for  more  ;  and  if  this  was  said  to  him,  it 
may  certainly  be  said  to  the  most  earnest  among  us. 
How,  then,  are  we  to  push  aside  the  smouldering 
ashes  that  have  gathered  upon  that  holy  flatne 
kindled  within  us  by  the  Grace  of  Ordination.  This  is 
the  question  which  I  shall  do  wliat  I  can  to  answer, 
craving  your  help  to  remedy  wdiat  I  fear  will  prove 
the  poverty  and  insufficiency  of  my  own  thoughts. 
To  meet  this  question  no  novel  expedients,  no 
fresh  inventions,  no  original  devices,  can  be  found. 
It  is  idle  to  consult  the  spirit  of  the  age,  as  we  are 
bidden  to  do  in  so  many  matters  requiring  to  be  set- 
tled in  these  strange  times.  It  is  equally  idle  to  ran- 
sack  the  stores  of  lecently- acquired  knowledge  and 
experience.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  prog- 
ress in  many  ways  within  our  own  generation,  but 
none  of  it  throws  additional  light  upon  this  subject. 
So  with  all  our  modern  studies  and  pursuits,  whether 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  195 

in  the  line  of  religion  or  of  scliolarship.  We  are 
shut  up  to  what  the  Gospel,  the  Church,  the  Priest- 
hood, the  human  heart  have  known  and  tried  ever 
since  the  holy  office  was  instituted.  It  is,  indeed, 
an  old  story,  and  can  become  new  only  as  it  is  in- 
laid with  the  life  of  our  own  souls.  If  our  ministry 
is  not  the  power  it  ought  to  be,  the  ideal  of  it  is  be- 
fore us.  If  it  be  weak,  if  its  tongue  falter,  if  its 
divine  fire  be  going  or  gone  out,  if  it  be  soiled  and 
hindered  by  the  world  and  the  flesh,  if  sinners  do 
not  hear,  and  saints  are  not  edified  by  its  message  ; 
the  cause  should  be  unearthed  and  set  so  plainly  be- 
fore us  that  there  could  be  no  chance  for  mistakes 
as  to  its  character  or  its  power.  ]S[o  two  generations 
try  the  stuff  our  ministry  is  made  of  in  precisely  the 
same  way.  Peculiar  and  pressing  as  may  be  its 
temptations  in  our  day,  there  is  at  least  a  family 
likeness  between  them  and  those  of  all  the  ages 
gone  before.  The  ordeal  may  be  different,  but  it 
is  in  no  respect  harder  than  it  has  been  in  every 
period  of  the  Church's  conflict  with  the  world. 
Sjjeaking  generally,  then,  the  cause  is  not  to  be 
found  in  any  or  all  antagonisms  specially  character- 
istic of  our  time.     In  searching  for  the  cause,  it  is 


196  Condones  ad  Clcrinn. 

better  to  turn  from  tlie  times  in  wliicli  our  lot  is 
cast  to  ourselves.  The  lioly  office  is  so  constituted, 
and  in  every  case  is  so  conferred,  that  the  highest 
range  of  its  power,  the  purest  type  of  its  influence, 
can  be  attained  only  by  observing  the  conditions  in- 
separably bound  up  with  it  by  its  Author.  N^o 
man  can  lawfully  take  the  office  unlesss  he  enter  into 
a  covenant  with  God  to  do  the  things  which  God 
declares,  both  in  Scripture  and  in  the  settled  judg- 
ment of  the  Church,  must  be  done  to  make  it  what 
it  was  meant  to  be.  The  question,  then,  for  us  to 
meet  is,  have  we  kept  these  necessary  conditions  ? 
have  we  done  these  necessary  things  ?  The  answer 
will  open  up  the  whole  subject,  and  as  part  of  it  the 
true  cause  of  the  partial  paralysis  which,  there  is 
grave  reason  to  fear,  has  crept  over  "  the  gift  that 
is  in  us  by  the  laying  on  of  hands. ' ' 

II.  It  is  the  will  of  God  that  we  shall  conceive 
rightly  of  the  sacred  office  itself.  Can  we  claim  to 
have  done  so  ?  Have  we  not  rather  fallen  away 
from  the  lofty  vantage  ground  on  which  He  has 
placed  it  ?  Do  we  feel  habitually  its  dignity  and 
importance  as  He  intended  we  should  ?  Is  it  in 
reality,  to  us  not  only  Christ's  chosen  ambassador- 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  197 

ship  to  liumanitj,  but  also  the  living  voice  of  His 
Eternal  Priesthood  among  men  ?  Is  it  verily  in  our 
habitual  thought  the  appointed  instrument  by  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  brings  to  bear  on  this  world  the  hid- 
den powers  of  the  world  to  come  ?  Does  it,  in  our 
current  estimate  or  in  our  actual  administration, 
wield  the  solemn  function  of  beseeching  men,  as  in 
Christ's  stead,  to  be  reconciled  unto  God  ?  Do  the 
majesty  of  its  source  and  the  grandeur  of  its  aim  in- 
spire us  with  a  zeal  which  the  world  can  neither 
give  nor  take  away  ?  Does  it  wear  to  our  eyes  the 
halo,  does  it  cause  our  hearts  to  glow  with  the  heav- 
enly fervor  of  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  Evangelists  of 
old,  or  of  the  goodly  fellowship  of  God's  servants 
who  all  along  the  ages  have  glorified  it  by  their  la- 
bors ?  Or  is  it,  on  the  other  hand,  to  some  of  us 
only  one  of  many  lawful  callings  in  life,  a  vocation 
seasoned  with  the  sweets  of  intellectual  leisure,  a 
profession  of  calm  and  respectable  surroundings,  to 
which  all  truth  is  equally  dear  and  all  sides  of  hu- 
man nature  of  equal  interest  ? 

In  the  long  run,  the  Ministry  will  rise  no  higher 
as  a  practical  power  than  our  conception  of  it.  It 
will  take  the  color,  breathe  the  spirit,  wear  the  gar- 


198  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

ments,  of  those  wlio  exercise  it.  Tlioiigli  of  God  and 
for  God,  it  becomes  in  our  keeping  what  we  are  our- 
selves. N  ow,  none  of  us  can  help  but  remember  how 
St.  Paul  magnified  his  office.  There  is  nothing  more 
characteristic  of  his  Apostolate  than  his  unspeakable 
sense  of  the  glory  and  greatness,  as  well  as  of  the 
matchless  responsibihty,  of  tlie  Ministry.  His  very 
conception  of  it  reacted  upon  his  soul  and  gave  to 
his  words  and  his  deeds  a  strange  power  over  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men.  He  might  speak  of  himself 
as  of  little  account,  as  strong  only  because  of  his 
weakness,  as  rude  of  speech,  as  less  than  the  least  of 
the  Apostles  ;  but  when  he  spoke  of  his  Office  he 
seems  to  have  been  unable  to  convey  to  others  the 
profound  awe  which  it  excited.  It  was  this  that  gave 
him,  amid  the  very  heat  and  tumult  of  his  eloquence, 
the  calm  fervor,  the  poised  purpose,  the  steady  cour- 
age before  which  fell  back,  as  angry  waves  from  a 
rock-bound  shore,  Jewish  factions  clamoring  for  his 
blood  and  Gentile  crowds  exasperated  at  his  fiery  re- 
bukes of  their  sins.  It  was  this,  more  than  anything 
else,  that  induced  Felix  to  hand  him  over  to  Festus, 
and  Festus  in  turn  to  hand  him  over  to  King  Agrip- 
pa,  and  King  Agrippa  in  liis  turn  to  exclaim,  ' '  al- 


The  Grace  of  Oi'dination.  199 

most  thou  persiiadest  nie  to  be  a  Christian. "  So  with 
the  epicureans  and  the  stoics  on  Mars  Hill.  They 
were  awed  by  his  doctrine,  but  still  more  by  the 
authority  with  which  he  spoke.  At  last  they  stood, 
face  to  face,  with  one  who  bore  down  upon  them  as 
one  conscious  of  a  sublime  commission,  and  laden 
with  the  supernatural  power  of  a  function  which 
neither  angels  nor  men  could  confer.  For  the  first 
time,  captains,  and  governors,  and  kings,  philoso- 
phers, and  sophists,  and  rhetoricians  fell  back  be- 
fore one  whose  only  claim  to  a  hearing  rested  upon 
the  simple aflfirmation,  "  Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  by  the  will  of  God." 

But  as  then,  so  now,  the  power  of  high  office,  the 
influence  of  commanding  authority  depends  largely 
upon  the  personal  mecKness  of  its  possessor.  We 
must  magnify  the  gift  that  is  in  us,  but  we  may  not 
magnify  ourselves.  It  is,  alas  !  a  common  weak- 
ness to  confound  our  own  pride  and  self-sufficiency 
with  the  intrinsic  greatness  of  our  priestly  authoi'i- 
ty.  The  true  priest  of  God  rules  only  as  he  serves, 
and  comprehends  his  mission  only  as  he  forgets  self. 
Many  a  priest,  in  his  endeavor  to  think  grandly  of 
his  office,  ends  in  thinking  grandly  of  himself.     All 


200  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

of  us,  I  suppose,  are  now  and  then  chafed  and  hum- 
bled by  the  pres^aiUng  popular  indifference  to  the 
authority  of  our  Office,  l^o  one  can  go  much  among 
men  without  discovering  mortifying  proofs  of  this 
feeling.  Bad  as  it  is,  there  is  but  one  way  to  cor- 
rect it.  We  may  preach  the  true  doctrine  of  the 
Ministry,  we  may  give  any  number  of  reasons  why, 
as  a  Sacred  Office,  it  ought  to  be  more  highly  es- 
teemed and  more  loyally  obeyed  ;  but  the  average 
man  of  this  generation  will  believe  what  we  say 
only  as  he  sees  it  reproduced  in  our  character  and 
work.  And  yet  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  a  good 
share  of  our  patience  under  difficulties  and  our 
courage  amid  opposition  must  arise  from  our  hold- 
ing fast  a  conception  of  the  Office  which  the  world 
refuses  to  accept.  In  our  own  thinking  and  feeling, 
we  cannot  take  too  high  ground  with  regard  to  it. 
Sin  does  not  cease  to  be  sin  because  fools  mock  at 
it  ;  neither  does  what  is  divine  in  this  Holy  Office 
collapse  because  the  outside  crowd  doubt,  or  deny, 
or  sneer  at  it.* 

*  The  authority  of  the  Holy  Office  arises  not  only  from  its 
divine  institution,  but  from  the  power  it  was  commissioned  to 
exercise.     This  power,  because  it  is  the  power  intrusted  to  the 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  201 

III.  Again,  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  no  priest 
shall  think  of,  or  treat  his  priesthood  as  an  isolated 
thing,    as  a    function    standing  apart  from   other 

governors  of  the  Church — a  spiritual  body,  is  spiritual,  and 
consists  chiefly  of  the  following  particulars. 

It  is  a  power  to  admit  into  the  Church  of  God  such  as  are  fit 
to  be  members  of  so  holy  a  society,  to  teach  and  to  exhort 
with  wholesome  doctrine,  to  tell  men  what  tliey  ought  to  do 
to  be  saved,  to  pray  for  the  souls  committed  to  our  charge,  to 
support  and  comfort  the  weak,  to  offer  to  God  the  oblations  of 
the  people,  and  to  administer  the  sacraments  which  are  gener- 
ally necessary  to  salvation.  It  is  a  power  moreover  to  warn 
and  rebuke  with  authority,  as  being  assured  that  God  will  rat- 
ify what  we  do  in  his  name  and  for  his  honor  ;  to  deny  the 
sacraments  to  all  such  as  render  themselves  unworthy  of  them, 
and  to  shut  out  of  the  Church  the  obstinately  wicked,  that  they 
may  no  longer  scandalize  the  Christian  profession  ;  and  to 
charge  all  other  Christians  not  to  have  fellowship  with  them. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  power  to  receive  the  penitent 
and  to  give  them  the  comfort  of  absolution  and  guidance. 
And  then,  still  further,  there  is  the  power  to  bind  and  loose,  to 
remit  and  retain — the  power  of  the  keys.  This  power  is  in- 
cluded, indeed,  in  the  particulars  before-mentioned,  but  it  is 
so  eminent  and  peculiar  a  power  of  the  Christian  priesthood, 
and  is  so  strongly  and  plainly  set  forth  by  Christ  himself, 
that  it  deserves  to  be  treated  with  special  care.  It  is  all  the 
more  needful  that  it  should  be  so  treated,  because  of  the  dispo- 
sition, now  so  common,  to  reduce  it  to  utter  impotence,  or  to 
explain  it  away  altogether.  The  words  of  the  Ordinal  that  ac- 
company the  imposition  of  hands  can  scarcely  be  uttered  now- 


202  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

functions  of  the  kingdom  which,  in  its  degree,  it  was 
ordained  to  represent.  If  the  Church  were  only  a 
voluntary  society  resting  on  a  compact  between  in- 

adays,  in  some  quarters,  without  excitiug  a  shudder  of  dissent, 
or  an  open  protest.  And  yet  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than 
that,  as  used  by  our  Lord,  they  were  intended  to  convey  a  dis- 
tinct and  positive  authority  to  bind  and  to  loose  the  sinner. 
The  passion  of  Christ  is  the  only  ransom  and  propitiation  for 
sin.  But  it  is  not  more  clear  that  he  alone  could  and  did  offer 
them,  than  it  is  that  he  established  a  connection  between  the 
application  of  them  to  individual  cases  and  the  ofBcial  ministra- 
tions of  his  deputies  and  ambassadors.  "  The  power  to  loose, 
to  put  away  sins,  is  exercised  in  many  ways.  (1)  By  bap- 
tism :  'I  believe  one  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,' so 
saith  the  Creed.  (2)  By  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  : 
'  This  is  my  blood  which  is  shed  for  you,  and  for  many  for 
remission  of  sins  ;  '  so  said  our  Saviour.  (8)  By  prayer  :  '  Call 
for  the  presbyter  of  the  Church  ;  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save 
the  sick  ;  and  if  he  have  committed  sins  they  shall  be  for- 
given him.'  (4)  By  preaching  the  Word  of  reconciliation: 
"  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not 
imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them  ;  and  hath  committed 
unto  us  the  Word  of  reconcihation."  (5)  By  absolution.  The 
priest  absolves,  or,  to  say  more  properly,  God  absolves  by  the 
priest.  God  remits  sovereignly,  imperially,  primitively,  abso- 
lutely ;  the  priest's  power  is  derivative,  delegate,  dependent, 
ministerial,  conditional." 

Archbishop  Bramhall,  from  whom  this  statement  is  quoted, 
goes  on  to  say  :  "  It  is  true  the  Protestants  differ  among  them- 
selves whether  the  absolution  of  the  priests  be  declarative  or 


The  Grace  of  Oj'dination.  203 

dividiials,  then  the  individual,  whether  only  a  mem- 
ber or  an  officer,  could  receive  from  it  only  what  lie 
gives  to  it,  or  if  more,  then  only  the  same  in  kind. 

operative  ;  that  is  about  the  manner  ;  and  so  do  the  Romanists 
(of  his  day)  likewise  one  with  another."*  But  he  implies 
that  there  is  no  dispute  as  to  the  fact  that  absolution  is  part  of 
the  official  power  of  the  ministry,  -and  that  by  Christ's  warrant 
It  is  connected  with  the  remission  of  sins.  We  find  substan- 
tially the  same  teaching  on  this  subject  in  the  writings  of 
Lancelot  Andrews,!  Jeremy  Taylor, :j:  William  Beveridge,§ 
.Isaac  Barrow.ll  Thomas  Wilson, T  and  Joseph  Bingham,**  also 
of  John  Jewell  f  f  and  Richard  Hooker  ;  %%  the  last  three,  how- 
ever, insisting  that  absolution  is  a  declaratory,  not  a  judicial 
and  operative  act. 

Now,  if  we  believe  in  the  authority  of  the  priesthood  at  all, 
we  must  believe  that  it  carries  with  it  the  power  to  do  these 
things.  And  if  it  do,  what  a  power  is  that  which  inheres  in 
our  orders  !  How  awful,  how  sacred,  how  far-reaching  in  its 
results,  how  tremendous  in  its  responsibility  !  It  matters  not 
iu  what  ways  the  spirit  of  this  age  may  attempt  to  dwarf,  or 

*  "Archbishop  Bramhall's  Protestant  Ordination  Defend- 
ed."    Works,  v.,  213  (Ed.  Oct.,  1844). 

f  Bishop  Andrews'  sermon,  "  Of  the  Power  of  Absolution." 
X  Bishop  Taylor's  "  Divine  Institution  of  the  Office  Minis- 
tries." 

§  Bishop  Beveridge's  sermon,  "  On  Ministers  of  the  Gospel, 
Christ's  Ambassadors." 

II  Dr.  Isaac  Barrow's  "  Power  of  the  Keys." 

■|[  Bishop  Wilson's  sermon,  on  "  Church  Discipline." 

**  Joseph  Bingham's  "  Sermon  on  Absolution." 

++  Bishop  .lewell's  "  Apology  of  the  Church  of  England." 

\\  Richard  Hooker,  "  Eccl.  Polity,"  Book  vi.,  chap,  vi.,  3. 


204  Condones  ad  Cleru77i. 

Nature  can  get  from  nature  only  wliat  is  in  nature. 
But  the  Churcli  is  something  else  and  sometliing 
more,  even  the  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit 
— the  very  body  of  Christ,  of  wliich  lie  is  the  Head 
and  we  are  the  members,  having  its  living  root  in, 
and  drawing  its  type  and  energy  of  growth  from,  his 
incarnation.  Not  only  its  corporate  life  centres  in 
Him,  bat  all  its  offices  and  ministrations  derive  their 
virtue  from  Him,  and  so  derive  it  as  that  each  is 
strengthened  by  the  strength  given  to  all  and  filled 
with  the  fulness  of  power  with  which  all  are  en- 
dued. As  no  grace  of  a  sanctified  life  can  stand 
apart  from  the  family  to  which  it  belongs,  so  no 
attribute,  gift,  or  function  of  this  kingdom  can 
reach  the  limit  of  its  force  except  by  its  organic 
union  with  all  kindred  attributes,  gifts,  and  func- 
tions. Recent  science  accounts  it  one  of  its  noblest 
triumphs  to  have  discovered  the  principles  of  the 
correlation  and  transmutation  of  physical  forces. 
Each  is  what  it  is  because  the  rest  are  what  they  are. 

dilute,  or  altogether  set  it  aside  as  incompatible  with  the  pre- 
vailing individualism  in  religion,  its  hold  on  the  world  is  as 
indestructible  as  that  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  itself.  The  whole 
scheme  of  Christian  redemption  must  dissolve  and  perish  be- 
fore it  can  pass  away. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  205 

And  so  eacli  is  tributary  to  all,  and  all  are  tributary 
to  each.  The  organization  of  the  Church  antici- 
pated this  discovery.  It  could  not  have  been  what 
it  is  had  it  not  done  so  ;  for  the  spiritual  world  is 
older  and  larger  than  the  world  of  nature,  and  is  so 
related  to  it  that  the  world  of  nature  is,  in  its  high- 
est aspect,  only  one  continuous  parable  of  the  world 
of  spirit.  Hence,  we  can  neither  rightly  conceive 
of,  nor  rightly  administer  the  priesthood,  except  we 
view  it  as  correlative  with  and  dependent  on  all  the 
powers  clustered  together  in  the  Church.  The 
Holy  Ghost  unifies,  because  it  permeates  them  all, 
and  what  He  gives  to  each.  He  gives  for  the  suste- 
nance and  benefit  of  all. 

Our  Ministry,  then,  is  distinct,  but  not  separate. 
It  is  fed  by  the  Sacraments,  CDlightened  by  the 
written  Word,  invigorated  by  the  joint  worship  of 
believers,  and  strengthened  by  every  saintly  life  in 
the  kingdom  of  God.  So  we  must  regard  it,  if 
we  would  stir  up  its  gifts  and  fully  develop  its  latent 
power ;  so,  too,  we  must  learn  not  to  isolate  the 
individual  priest  from  the  collective  priesthood,  nor 
the  priesthood  of  any  one  age  from  the  gathered 
experience  and  accumulated  wisdom  of  the  priest- 


2o6  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

liood  of  all  the  Christian  centuries.  No  member  of 
the  Order  fit  to  be  such  but  has  contributed  his  quota 
in  some  form  to  the  common  stock.  What  any  one 
]3riest  has  been,  all  priests  may  possibly  become. 
I^one  liveth  to  himself,  none  dietli  to  himself,  but 
all  help  to  swell  the  current  of  spiritual  power  and 
to  give  direction  to  every  separate  drop  that  falls 
into  it.  Here,  again,  matter  is  a  parable  of  sj)irit. 
What  an  inspiration  !  what  an  imj)etus  have  we 
from  this  fact  !  No  priest  is  alone.  A  mighty 
fellowship  encompasses  him.  A  power  not  liis  own 
is  derived  upon  him  as  an  heir  of  the  labors,  sacri- 
fices, triumphs,  griefs,  joys,  of  all  who  have  gone 
before  in  this  holy  vocation.  Tender  voices  plead 
with  him,  if  he  will  but  hear  them,  from  out  the 
near  or  the  distant  past.  Great  names,  pure  lives, 
precious  and  honorable  services  for  Christ  and 
humanity  gather  about  him  to  cheer  his  loneliness, 
to  soothe  his  trials,  to  brace  his  courage,  to  anoint 
his  lips,  to  make  him  patient  under  hardships,  and 
valiant  in  every  battle  with  the  doubtiug  and  the 
ungodly.  It  is  not  only  the  angels,  not  only  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  and  the  general  as- 
sembly of  the  first-born  that  look  down  upon  him  ; 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  207 

but  in  that  hovering  cloud  of  witnesses  are  hands 
and  feet,  faces  and  hearts  whose  tasks  have  been 
what  his  are  to-day.  Eyes  are  there  whose  tears  he 
is  only  weeping  again,  and  ears  into  which  the  Mas- 
ter poured  the  same  command  to  go  forward,  the 
same  commission  to  preach,  and  baptize,  and  min- 
ister the  bread  of  life.  Cold  must  be  that  heart 
that  finds  no  comfort  in,  gathers  no  unction  from, 
this  thought.  Alas  !  that  all  of  us  should  not  see 
more  in  it.  How  forlorn,  how  pitiful,  how  hope- 
lessly weak  that  priest  of  God  who,  amid  his  awful 
responsibilities,  drifts  off  from  the  great  body  of  his 
brethren,  living  and  dead,  and  lapses  into  some  soli- 
tary corner  of  the  vast  field — a  soldier  severed  from 
the  army  to  which  he  belongs  and  uncheered  by  the 
standard  which  has  so  often  led  to  victory— a  mem- 
ber of  an  order  peerlessly  rich  in  its  own  history  and 
unspeakably  so  in  the  blessing  and  honor  of  its  eter- 
nal Head,  and  yet  cut  off  from  the  common  heri- 
tage. Oh,  brethren,  we  are  too  much  parted,  too 
much  scattered,  too  much  isolated  ;  and  so  neither 
in  will  nor  affection,  in  faith  nor  charity,  in  wor- 
ship nor  work  are  we  what  we  might  be.  Half  bro- 
ken in  spirit,  half  hopeless  of  bearing  up  under  our 


2o8  Condones  ad  Cler2im. 

burdens,  needing  help  and  not  getting  it,  sometimes 
driven  to  the  verge  of  despair  by  the  sense  of  the 
loneliness  of  onr  lot,  let  ns  close  ranks  and  draw 
nearer,  heart  to  heart,  and  shoulder  to  shoulder.  It 
is  all  one  and  the  same  priesthood,  one  and  the 
same  labor,  and  we  all  need  the  same  help.  Thus 
shall  we  be  enabled,  in  one  way  at  least,  to  quicken 
the  languishing  flame  of  the  Grace  of  our  Orders. 

lY.  But  1  now  come  to  certain  bearings  of  my 
theme  that  relate  more  immediately  to  the  interior, 
personal  life  of  every  deputy  and  steward  of  Christ. 
God  can  work,  we  know,  by  the  ministry  as  an  in- 
strumentality external  to  ourselves.  He  can  make 
the  holy  office  effective  and  impart  to  it  all  virtue 
necessary  to  its  end,  apart  from  the  spiritual  condi- 
tion of  its  incumbents.  The  individual  priest  may 
be  an  unworthy,  even  a  vicious  man,  but  the  Holy 
Ghost  can  stand  between  him  and  the  inherent 
power  of  his  priesthood  and  cause  it  to  do  what  it 
was  ordained  to  do.  Baptism,  the  Eucharist,  and 
even  Preaching  and  the  more  private  ministrations 
to  souls,  will  be  what  He  makes  them  to  be,  though 
the  human  ministrant  be  a  godless  infidel.  And 
yet  ordinarily  the  Holy  Spirit  takes  into  account 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  209 

not  only  the  faculties  and  affections  of  the  officiant, 
but  his  life  and  character  also.  Aside  from  the  di- 
rect efficacy  of  priestly  acts  in  this  or  that  particu- 
lar case,  there  is  the  influence  flowing  out  upon 
neighboring  souls  from  the  iiriest's  own  spiritual 
condition,  which  lias  much  to  do  with  helping  or 
hindering  the  overtures  of  divine  mercy  and  the 
processes  of  divine  grace.  There  is  a  difference  quite 
immeasurable  between  the  power  of  the  ministry  as 
exercised  by  a  good  man,  and  the  power  of  it  as  ex- 
ercised by  a  l)ad  one.  Hence,  both  Holy  Scripture 
and  the  discipline  of  the  Church  are  never  weary  of 
setting  forth  and  insisting  upon  the  fullest  internal 
furnishing  and  the  highest  possible  spiritual  training 
of  every  ambassador  of  Christ.  They  not  only  re- 
mind him  that  he  must  go  beyond  the  private 
Christian  in  grace  and  knowledge  and  purity  ;  but 
they  press  upon  him  the  use  of  the  means  by  which 
he  is  enabled  to  do  so.  All  must  be  diligent  in 
prayer,  but  he  must  be  conspicuously  so.  All  must 
know  the  ScrijDtures,  but  he  must  know  them  with 
the  fulness  and  accuracy  of  an  expert.  All  must 
draw  freely  from  the  Church's  treasury  of  grace, 
wisdom,  and  experience,  so  as  to  be  imbued  with  the 


2IO  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

spirit  of  its  worsliip  and  discipline,  bnt  lie  must  do 
so  with  such  diligence  and  zeal  as  will  render  him  a 
leader  and  ensample  to  the  flock. 

I  have  sj)oken  first  of  prayer,  and  rightly  so,  for 
of  all  things,  next  to  the  immediate  working  of  the 
Spirit  of  Clod,  it  is  the  foremost  quickener  and  edu- 
cator of  the  spiritual  life.  It  were  needless,  surely, 
in  your  hearing  to  argue  its  power,  or  to  cite  the 
language  of  Scripture  to  prove  its  marvellous  influ- 
ence, or  to  appeal  to  experience  in  illustration  of 
the  wonders  it  has  wrought.  !Nor  need  I  recall 
what  it  has  done  for  saintly  lives  from  the  begin- 
ning, nor  how  it  has  been  the  strength,  the  com- 
fort, the  refuge  of  God's  true  servants  in  every 
age.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  it  is  plainly  impos- 
sible to  be  a  man  of  God,  and  far  more  to  be  a  true 
priest  of  God,  without  it.  As  air  is  to  the  lungs, 
light  to  the  eye,  food  to  the  blood,  water  to  thirst, 
motion  to  the  limbs,  so  is  prayer  to  the  soul.  If  low 
thoughts,  carnal  imaginations  vex  us  ;  if  vanity  and 
pride  and  self-consciousness  seize  upon  us  ;  if  way- 
wardness and  ambition  push  us  down  into  the  realm 
of  mixed  or  positively  debased  motives  ;  if  discon- 
tent and  discouragement,  or  doubt  deepening  into 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  2 1 1 

unbelief,  or  failure  darkening  into  despair  cripple 
and  distress  us  ;  if  trial  of  any  sort,  or  sin  of  any 
name,  or  Satan  himself  assail  us,  prayer,  beyond  any- 
thing else,  is  the  arm  of  our  strength,  the  rock  of 
our  defence.  Without  it  the  ministry  as  a  whole 
and  the  ministry  in  every  part  withers  and  dies.  If 
our  religion  have  any  axioms,  these  are  among  them, 
and  if  we  forget  or  disregard  them  we  violate  the 
command  and  throw  to  the  winds  the  promises  of 
God.  It  is  not  for  me  to  indicate  either  the  times, 
or  the  places,  or  the  modes  of  prayer.  I  wish  to 
do  no  more  than  insist  upon  its  vital  bearing  upon 
our  office  and  work.  We  are  ordained  to  be  leaders 
of  the  faithful  in  all  acts  of  public  worship.  We 
pray  for,  as  well  as  with  them.  In  us  their  sacri- 
fices of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  their  supplications 
of  penitence,  their  cries  of  intercession,  their  invo- 
cations and  litanies  are  gathered  up  and  voiced  and 
presented  to  God  through  the  one  Advocate  and  In- 
tercessor, the  eternal  High  Priest,  Jesus  Christ. 
But  how  can  we  do  for  them  what  we  have  not  first 
done  for  ourselves  ?  How  can  we  ask  them  to  con- 
fess and  bewail  their  sins,  when  we  have  not  done  so 
ourselves  ?     How  can  we  bring  them  to  feel  the 


212  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

awakening  breath  of  the  Spirit,  when  we  have  not 
felt  it  in  our  own  hearts  lirst  ?  How  can  we  infuse 
into  them  the  holy  unction  and  solemn  fervor  of 
the  Church' s  voice,  while  our  own  souls,  for  lack  of 
living,  habitual  commmiion  with  God,  are  cold  and 
dark  and  dead  ?  They  have  a  right  to  look  to  us, 
not  only  to  utter  in  advance  of  them  the  forms  of 
devotion,  not  only  to  recite  audibly  in  the  sanctuary 
the  words  of  the  hturgy,  but,  b}^  the  contact  with 
them  of  our  own  hearts,  to  fill  them  with  sacred  fire, 
to  interpret  their  deep  meanings,  and  bring  home 
to  the  listening  assembly  their  solemn  appeals  for 
help  and  jaardon,  mercy  and  comfort.  But  tell  me 
who  can  do  this  if  he  has  not  first  schooled  liimself 
for  it  by  wrestling  with  the  Spirit  in  secret  prayer  ? 
No  man  can  give  to  another  more  than  he  has  in 
liimself.  But  in  himself  no  man  has  more  of  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  than  the  Spirit  gives  him.  But 
the  Spirit  giveth  to  no  man  of  the  riches  of  His 
grace  that  seeketh  Him  not.  Hence  it  is  inevitable 
that  a  prayerless  priest  shall  be  cursed  with  sj)iritual 
impotence,  and  that  the  noblest  acts  which  he  un- 
dertakes to  perform  shall  dwindle  into  a  dumb 
show — an  unholy  pantomime. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  2 1 3 

Again,  as  heralds  of  Clirist,  it  is  required  of  us 
rightly  to  divide  the  Word  and  to  feed  the  flock 
with  food  suited  to  their  needs'.  Not  only  is  the 
truth  to  be  preached,  but  it  is  to  be  preached  in  due 
season.  Now  this  phase  of  it,  and  now  that.  All 
need,  indeed,  the  same  truth,  because  all  need  the 
whole  counsel  of  God  ;  but  amid  the  strange  and 
fitful  fluctuations  of  the  spiritual  life,  amid  special 
and  urgent  besetments  of  doubt,  or  worldliness,  or 
sin  of  any  sort,  some  souls  hunger  after  certain  parts 
of  the  truth  more  than  others,  and  they  must  be 
cared  for  accordingly.  Whether  regard  be  had  to 
the  Gospel  itself  or  to  the  human  need  of  it,  its 
adaptations  are  almost  infinite  ;  and  that  is  a 
wretchedly-discharged  ministry  that  does  not  habit- 
ually watch  for  the  times  and  places  which  bring 
them  into  play.  We  can,  if  we  choose,  pile  up  the 
principles  of  theology  and  ethics  like  so  much  cord- 
wood,  but  we  cannot  so  pile  up  souls  or  the  tempta- 
tions to  which  they  are  exj)osed.  We  have  living 
wills  to  deal  with,  not  fixed  states  of  mind,  and  our 
work  must  be  as  flexible  and  versatile  as  the  condi- 
tions which  affect  them.  Now,  it  is  only  the  Spirit 
of  God,  who  knoweth  what  is  in  the  hearts  and  lives 


214  Condones  ad  Cleritm. 

of  men  and  what  is  contained  in  the  treasury  of 
God's  truth,  that  can  direct  us  in  the  task  of  selec- 
tion and  adaptation  ;  and  tlie  only  means  open  to 
us  to  secure  such  guidance  is  private  entreaty,  per- 
sonal supplication.  To  neglect  this,  then,  or  to  be 
careless  and  indolent  about  it,  is  to  undermine  the 
fundamental  condition  of  our  pow'er  and  usefulness. 
No  attainments  in  divinity,  no  furnishing  of  the  in- 
tellect, no  gifts  of  culture,  no  devotion  to  the  arts 
of  eloquent  speech,  no  exhibitions  of  personal  en- 
ergy, no  industry  or  labor,  can  affect  this  kind  of 
unfaithfulness.  If,  then,  we  would  preach  well,  we 
must  pray  well.  It  is  God's  will  that  it  shall  be  so, 
and  it  were  better  to  renounce  our  commission  than 
to  go  counter  to  it. 

But  if  what  has  been  said  be  true  of  worship  and 
teaching,  it  is  equally  true  of  all  duties  involved  in 
the  cure  of  souls.  Excejit  as  men  of  prayer,  we 
have  no  warrant  for  claiming  or  expecting  a  clear 
insight  into  spiritual  diseases,  or  a  skilful  hand  in 
treating  them.  If  we  are  not  such,  we  are  fated  to 
be  intruders  and  blunderers  in  the  affairs  of  souls, 
and  the  fruit  of  our  follies  and  mistakes  will  soon  be 
apparent  in  the  weakness  and  failure  of  our  pastorate. 


The  Graee  of  Ordination.  215 

The  force,  tlie  reaUtj  of  what  has  been  said 
cannot  and  will  not  be  questioned.  Theoretically 
no  one  would  think  of  denying  it,  but  jpractically 
how  does  the  matter  stand  ?  We  may  not 
judge  one  another.  Every  one  shall  give  account  of 
himself  to  God.  But  if  I  go  no  further  than  what 
seems  to  be  the  average  tone  and  habit  of  the  min- 
istry, I  shall  be  borne  out  by  your  own  observation 
and  experience,  when  I  say  that  the  best  among  us 
have  much  to  repent  of  in  their  discharge  of  this 
duty.  Some  have  neglected  it  because  of  too 
much  devotion  to  the  studies  of  the  world  and  the 
flesh.  Some  have  neglected  it  because  too  much 
cumbered  with  serving,  too  much  absorbed  in 
affairs,  too  much  occupied  with  the  external  and 
routine  activities  of  the  holy  office  ;  and  still  others 
because  the  duty  is  irksome  and  themselves  are 
wantonly  careless  and  indolent.  That  we  would  be 
diligent  in  prayer  was  part  of  our  vow  at  the  sol- 
emn hour  of  Ordination.  Among  all  vows  which 
can  be  assumed  in  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  this 
towej's  above  them  all.  It  follows  us  at  every  step, 
overshadows  us  every  moment,  repeats  itself  in 
every  line  of  the  secret  diary  of  our  private  and 


2i6  Condones  ad  Clertnn. 

official  life.  It  is  nobody's  pious  exhortation,  it  is 
not  even  a  bisliop's  admonition,  it  is  neither,  more- 
over, altogether  the  momentous  demand  of  God's 
Word.  It  is  the  recorded  and  deliberate  utterance 
of  our  own  lips,  at  a  moment,  when  the  Church  asks 
to  know  what  is  in  our  mind  before  conferring 
the  gift  of  Orders.  It  is  a  covenant  with  her, 
and  through  her  with  Christ  Himself.  To  break  it 
is  a  crime  whose  woe  and  j)enalty  God  only  can 
measure. 

I  have  abstained  from  details,  as  to  how  much, 
and  when,  and  after  what  rule  we  should  pray.  I 
have  dwelt  mostly  upon  our  promise — our  obligation 
to  be  diligent  in  prayer.  Diligent  !  Am  I  asked  what 
it  is  to  be  so  ?  I  answer  in  the  memorable  words  of 
a  pure  and  noble  soul  now  in  paradise  :  "  It  is  not 
merely  the  giving  of  much  time,  or  the  stated  hours 
and  forms.  There  must  be  that  full  application  of  the 
heart  and  mind,  that  lifting  up  of  the  soul  to  God, 
that  drawing  out  of  the  affections  after  Him,  that 
cleaving  of  the  desires  to  Him,  that  ardor  and  yet 
that  j)atience,  that  humility  and  yet  tliat  boldness, 
which  time  cannot  measure,  which  make  long 
prayers  seem  short  to  him  who  offers  them,  and 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  217 

sliort  prayers,  if  necessity  shall  make  them  such, 
count  as  long  prayers  with  Him  who  for  Christ's 
sake  receives  mercifully  the  soul  that  followeth 
hard  after  Him."*  For  the  sake  of  our  ministry, 
then,  and  in  order  to  quicken  its  holy  fire,  to  stir 
up  to  a  mightier  energy  its  peerless  gift ;  for  the 
sake  of  souls  given  into  our  charge  ;  for  the  greater 
increase  of  the  Gospel's  power  and  the  Church's 
honor ;  for  our  own  growth  and  the  grace  and 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ,  let  us,  "  continuing  in- 
stant in  prayer,' '  pray  for  the  spirit  of  prayer  and 
for  ihQ power  to  pray,  for  both  are  the  gifts  of  God  ; 
and  let  us  so  use  both  the  spirit  and  the  power, 
when  given,  as  to  blend  our  poor,  stammering 
cries  with  the  prayers  of  all  saints,  and  both  with  the 
divine  pleadings  before  the  throne  of  our  eternal 
High  Priest,  "  who  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  us. " 

y.  I  come  now  to  speak  on  another  topic  of  ex- 
ceeding gravity  and  importance,  viz.,  how  we  may 
kindle  the  Grace  of  Orders  by  the  diligent  study  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.      The  Scriptures  themselves 

*  Bishop  "Wilberforce. 


2i8  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 


and  the  Cliurch  in  her  Ordinal,  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  her  own  formal  and  condensed  reiteration 
of  the  mind  of  the  Scriptures  on  this  subject,  j^resent 
it  with  so  much  fulness  and  emphasis  that,  having 
duly  recited  and  urged  ujDon  you  their  testimony,  I 
might  be  charged  with  presumption  in  adding  any 
words  of  my  own.  No  one  would  feel  this  more 
deeply  than  myself,  if  the  matter  could  be  treated 
apart  from  the  times  in  which  we  live.  But  it  can- 
not be  so  treated,  if  it  is  to  be  treated  to  edifica- 
tion. It  is  idle  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  by 
the  Scriptures  or  the  Church  touching  the  general 
topic  which  has  been  proposed  for  consideration ; 
unless  it  be  with  a  view  to  show  not  only  how  far 
we  have  drifted  from  their  requirement  under  the 
ordinary  downward  tendencies  of  human  nature 
common  to  all  ages  of  the  j)riestliood  ;  but  also  how 
far  this  drift  has  been  helped  on  by  tendencies  more 
or  less  peculiar  to  our  own  day.  It  is  not  so  much 
a  question  what  the  written  Word  and  the  Ordinal 
say,  as  it  is  how  what  they  say  affects  us — our  train- 
ing, our  temper  of  mind  and  heart,  our  estimate 
and  our  use  of  the  means  appointed  of  God  for  the 
(juickening  of  the  ministerial  gift  imparted  to  us  by 


The  Grace  of  O^'dination.  219 

tLe  laying  on  of  hands  ;  how  it  bears  npon  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  Ave  must  exercise  the  holy 
office,  and  npon  certain  misleading  influences  that 
press  upon  us  as  silently,  but  as  steadily  and  pow- 
erfully as  the  atmosphere  we  breathe.  The  only 
authorities  that  have  any  right  to  address  us  have 
spoken.  Tlieir  witness,  their  counsel,  their  direc- 
tion are  before  us,  we  know  them  as  we  Icnow  our 
alj)habet.  But,  as  a  whole,  the  clergy  do  not  as 
they  promised  they  would.  If  so,  why  ?  There  is 
the  question,  "  Will  you  be  diligent  in  reading  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  in  such  studies  as  help  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  same  ?"  and  there  is  the  answer. 
But  what,  in  too  many  cases,  has  come  of  the  an- 
swer ?  It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  clergy,  as  an 
order,  are  not  strong  in  the  Scriptures  in  the  sense 
'they  once  were,  and  if  we  trust  the  Scriptures  and 
the  Church,  it  is  certain  that  no  priest  can  be  what 
he  promised  to  be,  what  he  ought  to  be,  what  he 
must  be,  if  he  is  to  do  his  work,  unless  the  warp 
and  woof  of  his  teaching  be  woven  of  the  threads 
and  dyed  in  the  color  of  God's  Word. 

(1 )  First,  then,  why  have  the  clergy  in  our  time 
fallen  off  in  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  in 


2  20  Condones  ad  Clernm. 

sucli  studies  as  help  to  a  knoweldge  of  the  same  ? 
Bj  some,  I  am  aware,  it  will  be  denied  that  they 
have,  and  in  support  of  the  denial,  it  will  be  asked, 
when  has  there  been  a  more  varied  and  profound 
study  of  the  Scriptures  ?  When  has  biblical  criti- 
cism commanded  more  attention,  or  drawn  to  itself 
more  learning  and  labor  than  in  the  present  genera- 
tion ?  Has  there  ever  been  such  tliorough  work  in 
examining  the  text,  in  comparing  the  various  read- 
ings, in  tracing  the  origin  and  formation  of  the 
Canon,  the  history  and  the  relations  of  the  several 
books  ?  What  question,  what  doubtful  point,  what 
issue  of  evidence  external  or  internal,  what  omis- 
sion or  interpolation  has  escaped  the  keen  and  ex- 
haustive inquiry  of  the  time  ?  Has  not  the  mod- 
ern learning  done  so  much  as  to  cause  the  old 
learning  to  appear  by  comj)arison  quite  superficial 
and  valueless  ?  Have  there  ever  been  such  appli- 
ances for  sacred  studies,  or  could  they  have  been 
more  industriously  and  effectively  used  ?  Has 
there  not  been  such  progress  of  late  in  Philology 
and  Ethnology,  and  all  kindred  branches  of  knowl- 
edge as  to  render  them,  in  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems presented  by  the  sacred  writings,  practically 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  221 

new  sciences  ?  Surely,  it  will  be  said,  the  clergy 
cannot  but  have  profited  by  both  the  advanced  crit- 
icism, and  by  the  new  fields  of  inquiry  which  that 
criticism  has  disclosed.  And  if  they  have,  what 
ground  can  there  be  for  affirming  that  they  have 
declined  either  in  the  desire  or  in  the  actual  work 
of  Scriptural  study  ? 

Now,  without  the  slightest  wish  to  abate  the  force 
of  all  that  can  be  said  in  this  direction,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  freely  assenting  to  every  reasonable  claim 
put  forth  by  the  most  ardent  votary  of  the  new 
learning,  I  am  bold  to  affirm  that,  parallel  with 
this  progress,  and  partly  as  a  consequence  of  it,  a 
serious  decline  has  been  going  on  in  that  phase  of 
sacred  studies  to  which,  more  than  to  any  other,  the 
Ordinal  refers.  And  that  phase,  let  it  be  known,  is 
the  one  compared  with  which  all  others  are  of  in- 
ferior moment.  We  are  to  be  diligent  in  reading 
the  Scriptures  and  in  such  studies  as  help  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  same.  The  Ordination  vow  binds 
us  to  do  both.  But  both  may  be  done  in  various 
ways  and  for  various  purposes.  Thousands  have 
done  both,  and  yet  failed  of  the  end  which  the 
Church  has  in  view  in  imposing  tliis  vow.     The 


22  2  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

Scriptures  may  be  diligently  read  and  studies 
illustrative  of  tliem  be  pursued  with  zeal,  and  yet 
only  on  the  ground  that  they  form  one  of  the  most, 
perhaps  the  most,  interesting  chapter  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  race.  If  the  Greek  and  Roman  lit- 
eratures have  their  own  place  and  value,  the  He- 
brew certainly,  in  some  of  its  characteristics,  sur- 
passes them  both.  Indeed,  while  it  attracts  all  ed- 
ucated minds,  it  has  an  extraordinary  fascination 
for  some.  But  clearly  it  is  not  merely  as  a  well- 
defined  and  even  splendid  body  of  literature  that 
the  Church  calls  upon  her  priests  to  read  and  study 
it. 

Again,  though  she  would  have  them  duly  fur- 
nished and  equipped  in  controversial  divinity,  and 
quick  to  discover  and  repel  the  approaches  of  er- 
roneous and  false  doctrine,  she  does  not  command 
them  to  read  and  study  chiefly  for  this  end.  A 
sound  and  comprehensive  theology  is  of  great  value, 
as  providing  an  authorized  compend  of  settled  prin- 
ciples, and  yet  even  this  is  not  the  primary  ground  of 
her  requirements.  She  demands,  rather,  that  we 
shall  be  diligent  in  the  Scriptures  in  order  that  we 
may  catch  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  223 

underlie  the  Christian  hfe  in  the  individual  soul, 
those  utterances  of  inspiration  which  fill  the  heart 
with  a  sense  of  the  need  and  of  the  gift  of  a  per- 
sonal Saviour,  those  revelations  of  the  means  of 
grace  by  which  sinners  are  moved  to  repentance  and 
saints  are  built  up  in  an  ever-increasing  faith  in 
the  trutb  which  is  the  power  of  salvation,  and 
throng';  that  into  the  stature  of  Christ  Jesus. 
The?e  are  various  kinds  and  degrees  of  Scriptural 
knov/ledge,  all  of  tliem  important  and,  taken  to- 
gether, embracing  every  possible  aid  to  their  acquisi- 
tion. But  there  is  one  kind,  one  degree,  which  no 
criticism,  however  acute  and  -exhaustive,  can  give, 
because  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  any  art  or  appli- 
ance of  the  intellect,  and  can  be  attained  only  by  a 
deep  and  habitual  communion  with  God's  Word  as 
a  strictly  spiritual  act — a  communion  resting  on  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  on  our  inward  like- 
ness to  the  mind  of  Christ.  So  only  can  we  pierce 
through  the  letter  to  the  spirit,  through  the  out- 
ward record  to  the  inward  truth,  and  even  through 
the  inward  truth  to  the  life  of  God,  which  is  its  ani- 
mating soul.  So  only,  too,  can  we  feel  the  throbs 
and  catch  the  rhythm  of  the    Divine   movement 


2  24  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 

through  the  ages  from  Paradise  lost  to  Paradise  re- 
gained— a  movement,  which,  because  it  is  one  of 
grace,  not  of  nature,  is  discernible  by  faith  rather 
than  by  reason,  a  movement,  moreover,  of  which 
the  written  Word  is  God's  own  record,  sketched  by 
prophets,  evangelists,  and  apostles,  speaking  at  sun- 
dry times  and  in  divers  manners,  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  the  knowledge 
which  transcends  all  else,  no  scholarship  can  win  it. 
It  lies  beyond  the  range  of  the  best  critical  apparatus 
invented  by  this,  or  any  past  generation.  It  comes 
of  the  study  of  forces,  not  of  words  ;  of  facts,  not 
of  style  ;  of  Divine  thoughts  and  purposes,  and  of 
the  human  needs  which  evoked  them,  rather  than  of 
the  articles  and  conjunctions,  the  nouns  and  verbs 
through  which  they  speak.  Do  not  understand  me 
as  underrating  the  value  of  verbal  criticism  or  of  ex- 
egetical  studies  generally.  I  only  insist  that,  need- 
ful as  they  may  be  in  their  place,  there  is  a  higher 
knowledge  of  God's  word  than  any  that  they  can 
give,  a  knowledge  that  vanishes  from  the  attempted 
grasp  of  any  purely  mental  process,  and  yields  it- 
self, as  a  thing  of  the  spirit,  only  to  a  spiritual 
mind. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  225 

(2)  And  this  brings  me  to  notice  the  character- 
istic difference  between  the  Patristic  and  the  Modern 
critical  handling  of  tlie  Scriptures.  The  former 
was  bent  on  getting  at  the  inner  life,  the  hidden 
soul  of  the  Scriptures  ;  the  latter  is  bent  on  taking 
to  pieces,  and  putting  together  again  the  language 
in  which  that  life,  that  soul,  is  enshrined.  The 
former  struck  down  to,  and  moved  on  with,  the 
hidden  current  of  the  divine  thought  ;  the  latter 
anatomizes  the  flesh  tissues  and  nerve  threads 
and  bone  articulations  that  make  up  the  channel 
through  which  that  current  flows.  The  former 
saw  as  many  meanings  as  it  could,  the  latter  sees 
as  few  as  it  can.  The  former  bored  down  through 
one  stratum  after  another  until  it  reached  the 
deepest  reservoirs  ;  the  latter  is  content  to  stop 
with  the  first  water  it  finds,  and  believes  every 
spring-head  the  purer  in  proportion  as  it  is  found 
near  the  surface.  With  the  f onner  the  letter  is  but 
the  starting-point  for  excursions  into  the  world  be- 
hind it  ;  with  the  latter  it  is  a  sort  of  ratchet  to  the 
wheel  of  suggestion  and  meditation.  The  differ- 
ence between  these  methods,  radical  as  it  is,  is  sub- 
stantially the  difference  between  two  widely-sun- 


2  26  Condones  ad  Cleruni. 

dered,  almost  antagonistic,  conceptions  of  the  actual 
nature  and  functions  of  Holy  Scripture — the  one  re- 
garding it  as  a  revelation  of  the  mind  of  God  given 
under  supernatural  conditions,  and  therefore  not  to 
be  treated  as  any  merely  human  literature  may  be 
treated  ;  the  other  regarding  it  practically  as  only 
one  of  many  rival  religious  records,  and  therefore 
subject  to  precisely  the  same  canons  of  interj^reta- 
tion  as  any  other  product  of  the  human  mind.  If 
the  latter  conception  be  the  correct  one,  then  it  is 
quite  consistent  that  no  attempt  should  be  made  to 
find  any  more  meaning  in  the  Scriptures,  than  the 
human  mind  can  find  in  itself,  or  in  the  history  of 
its  own  development. 

None  of  the  clergy,  I  suppose,  would  acquiesce  in 
such  a  view  unless  they  would  be  ready  to  admit 
that  the  Bible  is  God's  Word  only  figuratively  and 
b}''  courtesy.  Stated  thus  grossly,  and  thus  nakedly 
outlined,  it  certainly  would  have  no  chance  of  ac- 
ceptance by  men  who  retain  any  respect  for  their 
vows  of  Ordination.  But  commonly  it  is  not  so  pre- 
sented. Like  many  things  of  like  sort,  it  usually 
comes  to  us  more  or  less  veiled  in  the  hazy  phrases 
of  rationalistic  rhetoric,  which  glories    in   under- 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  227 

mining,  without  shocking,  the  traditional  faith  of 
the  simple  and  unwary.  However  disguised  or  di- 
luted, it  is  found  on  every  thoroughfare  and  in 
many  of  the  by-ways  of  the  religious  thought  of  the 
time  ;  and,  I  fear,  has  made  serious  inroads  upon 
some  also  who  little  suspect  how  near  is  the  goal  to 
which  its  logic  will  lead  them.  It  is  impossible  to 
reckon  up  the  causes  which  liave  drawn  so  many  of 
the  clerg}'-  away  from  the  Church's  requirement,  and 
from  their  own  promise  touching  the  diligent  read- 
ing and  study  of  God's  Word  without  placing  this 
among  the  chief.  I  do  not  mean  what  is  called 
rationalism,  pure  and  simple,  wrought  out  into  defi- 
nite method  and  assuming  the  pretension  of  a  formal 
philosophy.  I  refer  rather  to  a  mode  of  bibhcal 
criticism  which  it  has  helped,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  produce,  and  whose  aim  seems  to  be  to  see  as 
little  as  possible,  in  the  text,  and  to  sneer  at  the  Fa- 
thers, whose  mode  of  interpretation  was  exactly  the 
opposite,  and  for  a  reason  which  I  have  already 
given.*      It   seems  impossible  but  that  this  bald 

*  la  speaking  of  the  exegetical  value  of  Patristic  Antiquity, 
it  may  be  well  to  recall  a  fact  familiar  to  every  Churchman, 
viz.,  that  when  the  Church  appeals  to  the  Ancient  Fathers,  she 


2  28  Co7iciones  ad  Clerum. 

and  barren  style  of  handling  God's  "Word  should, 
in  all  who  accept  it,  chill  their  interest  in  sacred 
studies  and  tempt  them  to  acquiesce  in  the  mini- 
mum, rather  than  excite  them  to  labor  for  the  max- 
imum, of  Scripture  knowledge.  It  is  only  subjects 
abeadj  dead,   or  subjects  whose  life  is  expected  to 

does  not  refer  to  well-knowa  names  in  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries — such  as  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and  Thomas  of 
Aquinum,  but  to  the  Fathers  of  the  first  four  or  five  centuries, 
and  eminently  to  those  of  ike  ante-Nicene  age.  It  is  the  boast 
of  a  numerous  and  pretentious  school  of  interpreters  and  critica 
that  they  have  shaken  themselves  free  from  the  mystical  method 
of  the  early  Fathers.  It  seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  them 
that  in  doing  so,  they  have,  at  the  same  time  shaken  them, 
selves  free  from  the  method  of  interpretation — call  it  mystical, 
or  anything  else — habitually  adopted  by  Christ  and  His  apos- 
tles. One  cannot  but  remember  in  this  connection  the  lan- 
guage of  Bisbop  Pearson,*  "'  Philosophia  quotidie  progressu, 
theologla  nisi  regressu  non  crescit. "  "  You  who  either  fill  the 
venerable  office  of  the  priesthood  or  intend  it,  and  are  here- 
after to  undertake  the  awful  cure  of  souls,  rid  yourselves  of 
that  itch  of  the  present  age,  the  love  of  novelty.  Make  it  your 
business  to  inquire  for  that  which  was  from  the  beginning. 
Resort  for  counsel  to  the  fountain-head.  Have  recourse  to 
antiquity.  Return  to  the  holy  Fathers.  Look  back  to  the 
Primitive  Church.  In  the  words  of  the  Prophet,  '  Ask  for  the 
old  paths.'  " 

*  See  Appendix  C.  *  Minor  Works,  vol.  2,  p.  10. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  229 

vanisli  under  the  knife,  that  are  fit  for  sneli  an  ana- 
tomy. The  Patristic  handling  may  have  led  off,  as 
it  did  among  the  Alexandrian  school,  into  many 
fancies  and  idle  dreams  but  wherever  it  wrought  it 
deepened  and  widened  the  spiritual  world.  This 
other  handling,  however,  by  its  hard,  technical  lit- 
eralism, first  muddies  and  then  dries  up  the  very 
fountains  of  spirituaKty. 

(3)  Let  me  now  call  attention  to  another  influ- 
ence that  has  helped  to  bring  into  more  or  less  dis- 
favor the  diligent  reading  and  study  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. The  history  of  sacred  thought  is  full  of  re- 
actions from  extremes.  The  too  much  is  followed 
by  the  too  little,  and  the  too  httle  in  turn  by  the 
too  much.  Just  now  we  seem  to  be  reacting,  on 
the  one  hand,  from  the  too  much  as  regards  the 
office  of  Scripture,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  from  the 
too  little  as  regards  the  office  of  the  Church.  Those 
are  still  living  who  can  recall  Christian  scholars  and 
tliinkers  who  so  elevated  the  written  "Word  above  all 
else  as  to  be  named,  and  with  some  justice,  bibliola- 
ters. They  held  the  strongest  possible  doctrine  of 
plenary  Inspiration  both  as  to  the  form  and  the  sub- 


230  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

stance  of  Revelation.  They  fonnd  in  itself  not  only 
the  sufficient  witness  of  its  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity, but  also  in  itself  the  sufficient,  nay  the  com- 
plete, canon  of  interpretation.  They  declared  it  self- 
evidencing  and  self -explaining.  Its  meaning  might 
be  simple  or  manifold,  literal  or  mystical ;  it  mat- 
tered not  whether  it  concerned  prophecy  or  doc- 
trine, morals  or  worship,  discipline  or  history,  from 
the  most  hidden  sayings  to  the  plainest  pre- 
cepts :  one  only  faculty  was  needed  to  develop  and 
expound  it — private  judgment,  with  such  guidance 
and  help  as  it  could  obtain.  The  consequences  are 
too  well  known  to  require  any  formal  reference  to 
them  here.  The  factor  which  this  school  left  out — 
the  living,  historic,  universal  Church,  to  whose 
keeping  and  witness  the  written  Word  has  been 
committed  from  the  start — had  to  be  brought  for- 
ward, and  its  rightful,  Christ-given,  necessary 
office  to  be  insisted  upon. 

But  here  again  the  equilibrium  between  the  Word 
and  the  Church — both  alike  of  God,  both  alike  in- 
dispensable, both  so  bound  together  by  their  Author, 
that  to  sunder  them  is  to  cripjjle  both,  permanently 
to  neglect  either  is  to  destroy  the  other — has  been 


TJie  Grace  of  Ordination.  231 

sadly  disturbed  in  some  minds.  To  the  cry,  ^'  The 
Bible,  the  Supreme  Rule  of  Faith  !"  (which  it  is, 
properly  understood)  ;  the  "  Scriptures  all  in  all  !" 
not  only  in  the  sense  of  their  sufficiency  for  every 
human  need  of  divine  knowledge,  but  also  in  the 
sense  that  every  individual  believer  was  sufficient  for 
their  explication — to  this  succeeded  the  cry,  "  The 
Church  ;  the  living  organ  of  God's  will  !  "  The 
Chm'ch  whose  consciousness  embraces  at  once  the 
contents  of  the  Word  and  all  besides  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  imparted  under  the  fluctuating  emergen- 
cies of  history  !  The  Church  the  only  safe  guide, 
whether  we  affirm  of  it  an  a  ])riori  infallibility  or  an 
a  posteriori  inerrancy  !  The  Church,  which,  in  her 
Creeds  and  Confessions  and  Liturgies  and  Canons  of 
discipline,  gives  us  the  essential  mind  of  Scripture 
with  her  own  varied  experience  of  its  use  super- 
added !  Why  go  back,  it  is  said,  to  writings  the 
latest  of  which  are  nearly  two  thousand  years  old, 
when  we  have  a  living  voice  to  guide  us  ?  Why 
spend  our  days  on  Greek  particles  and  tenses,  when 
we  have  all  we  want  ready  at  hand  and  duly  certi- 
fied by  the  only  authority  competent  to  speak.  The 
voice  of  God,  it  is  said,  reaches  us  to-day  under 


232  Condones  ad  Cle7''ti'm. 

higher  conditions  of  certitude,  through  the  Body  of 
Christ,  tlian  through  records  which  have  given  rise 
to  endless  disputes  concerning  a  thousand  points 
which,  individually,  we  are  powerless  to  decide. 
"Why  give  laborious  years  to  harmonizing  and  uni- 
fying scores  of  writers,  even  though  inspired,  when 
the  truth  is  offered  us  in  all  its  harmony  of  parts 
and  unity  of  aim,  in  the  testimony  of  a  living  society, 
which  enjoys  the  divine  promise  of  guidance  into 
the  way  of  all  trutli  ?  The  Scriptures  have  their 
place  and  use.  They  are  to  be  preserved  with  the 
utmost  care.  They  are  to  be  reverenced  by  believ- 
ers and  defended  against  enemies.  We  should  be 
familiar  with  their  diction,  because  it  is  that  which 
holy  men  chose  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Hd.y 
Ghost.  We  should  have  their  precepts  on  our 
tongues,  because  they  are  sententious  and  sublime. 
We  should  have  in  our  minds  the  connections  of  the 
books  and  the  characteristics  of  each.  In  short,  we 
should  have  all  knowledge  of  them  that  can  be  had 
without  laborious  and  painstaking  scholarship),  and 
without  binding  ourselves  too  closely  to  a  very  high 
notion  of  the  Ordination  vow.  ' 

I  do  not  aim  at  precise  definitions.     I  speak  of  a 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  233 

tone  of  tlioiight,  a  habit  of  mind,  just  now  becoming 
more  and  more  prevalent  among  priests  under  thir- 
ty years  old,  and  among  candidates  for  Holy  Orders. 
It  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  the  outcome  of  one-sided 
and  extravagant  views  of  the  mission  and  functions 
of  the  Church.  Just  in  proportion  as  it  spreads 
will  it  make  our  preaching  lean  and  flabby,  our 
theology  lop-sided  and  superficial,  our  spiritual  life 
loose  and  languid,  and,  as  a  final  result,  our  min- 
istry an  arm  of  power  bei-eft  of  bone  and  sinew. 

"We  want  neither  hihllolatry  nor  ecclesiolafry. 
"We  are  to  be  on  our  guard  alike  against  the  shrink- 
age, the  disuse,  the  distortion  of  every  vehicle  of 
God's  will.  If  we  know  the  Bible  and  the  Church 
as  we  ought,  we  know  what  they  are — each  in  itself 
and  each  to  the  other.  It  is  impossible  for  them  to 
antagonize,  and  it  is  equally  imposible  for  either  to 
supplant  the  other.  As  well  say  the  stars  are  not 
needed  because  we  have  the  sun,  or  the  sun  is  of 
little  account  because  we   have   the    stars.*     The 

*  It  is  our  duty  to  be  zealous  tor  llie  sufficiency  and  suprem- 
acy of  Scripture.  It  is  our  only  Eule  of  Faith.  To  it  every 
doctrine  must  be  conformed  ;  by  it  every  doctrine  must  be  tried. 
But  we  must  remember  that  the  Bible  itself  teaches  us  that 


234  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

folly  is  apparent,  the  danger  not  so  much  so.  It  is 
one  of  the  worst  of  the  many  bad  fruits  of  unbal- 
anced thinking  and  misdirected  zeal  on  sacred  sub- 
jects, that  they  mar  or  break  up  entirely  the  ex- 
quisite equilibrium  of  divine  gifts.  It  would  seem 
as  though  this  was  the  least  pardonable  of  all  the 
disturbances  of  that  heavenly  adjustment  and  har- 
monious balance.  At  what  a  cost  were  the  Scrip 
tures  given  us  as  part  of  our  inheritance  ?  At  what 
a  cost,  too,  was  the  Church  given  as  another  part  ? 

God  has  not  only  given  the  Bible  as  a  rule,  but  has  also  given 
us  the  Universal  Church  to  guide  us  in  the  right  use  and  appli- 
cation of  the  rule.  (Chr.  Wordsworth's  Bishop  of  Liucolu's 
Miscellanies,  vol.  2,  p.  93.) 

Our  knowledge  on  this  subject,  however  confirmed  and  il- 
lustrated by  human  inquiry,  comes  to  us,  or  rather  is  given  to 
us,  by  a  Divine  warrant.  St.  Paul,  in  his  two  letters  specially 
devoted  to  the  instruction  and  guidance  of  the  ministry — the 
teaching  order — says  first  of  the  Church  to  which  the  Scrip- 
tures were  committed  :  "  The  Church  of  the  living  God,  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth."*  Then  farther  on,  "  All  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness :  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  fur 
uished  with  all  good  works,  "f  The  two  cannot  be  separated 
from,  nor  confounded  with,  nor  opposed  to  one  another. 

*  1  Timothy  3  :  15.  f  2  Timothy  3  :  16,  17. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  235 

How  marvelloiisly  do  tliey  speak  the  one  for  the 
other  ?  How  else  than  as  the  narrowness  born  of 
ignorance  and  conceit  shall  I  characterize  the  tern- 
per  which  says,  on  the  one  hand,  here  is  the  Word 
— I  want  nothing  but  that,  it  is  my  confession  of 
faith,  it  is  enough  for  me  and  I  am  enough  for  it  ; 
or,  on  the  other,  here  is  the  Church — tell  me  what 
she  says,  and  I  care  for  nothing  more.  Surely  it  is  not 
for  me,  in  such  a  hearing,  to  point  out  how  the 
Church  intends  us  to  use  the  summaries  and  com- 
pends  of  truth,  the  Creeds  and  Offices  she  puts  into 
our  hands.  If  they  bear  the  stamp  of  her  universal 
consent,  they  are  of  the  highest  authority  ;  not 
merely  because  at  certain  crises  in  her  history  she 
has  framed  and  published  them,  but,  before  all  else, 
because  they  were  originally  di'awn  from  Scripture 
and  may  now  be  proved  thereby.  They  are,  indeed, 
more  than  a  help  and  convenience,  as  some  are  con- 
tent to  esteem  them.  They  are  absolutely  necessary, 
if  the  faith  of  Christ  is  to  be  incorporated  into  a 
kingdom  and  transmitted  as  a  continuous  force  in 
history.  But  whatever  their  need,  their  use,  their 
influence,  their  authority,  they  have  a  hold  on  us 
because  they  have  a  yet  stronger  hold  on  the  mind 


236  Condones  ad  Clerttm. 

of  Clirist  as  set  fortli  in  certain  "  Scriptures  given 
bj  inspiration  of  God" — Scriptures,  be  it  remem- 
bered, of  which  Christ  Hinnselfis  tlie  interpreter^^ 
speaking  audibly  to  men  wbile  he  was  yet  in  the 
Hesh,  speaking  afterward  and  always,  nnto  the  end, 
by  the  Comforter,  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  and  through 
His  own  body,  the  Church.  It  is  of  these  Creeds 
and  Confessions  and  Offices  that  we  are  told,  as  of 
all  other  utterances  claiming  to  be  divine,  "  Prove 
all  things. "  It  is  the  duty  of  all  to  attempt  it  /  it 
is  the  duty  of  some  to  do  it.  Every  private  Chris- 
tian should  do  what  he  can  to  analj'ze  his  belief  and 
resolve  every  article  of  it  into  the  elements  of  which 
it  is  composed.     Every  official  Christian  is  bound  to 

*  Christ  the  everlasting  "Word,  is  the  expounder  of  the  writ- 
ten Word.  He  inteipreted  the  Old  Testament  in  person  when 
He  was  on  earth.  He  sealed  it  with  His  own  seal,  and  deliv- 
ered it  as  God's  Word  to  the  Church,  and  by  the  Church  to 
the  world.  After  His  ascension  He  explained  the  meaning  of 
the  New,  as  well  as  the  Old  Testament,  by  His  Spirit  and  His 
apostles.  And  when,  after  their  departure,  heresies  arose.  He 
declared  the  true  meaning  of  Holy  Scripture  by  Creeds  and 
Confessions  of  Faith,  received  by  His  Church  Universal,  to 
which  He  has  promised  His  presence  even  unto  tlie  end  of  the 
world."  (Chr.  Wordsworth,  Bishop  of  Lincoln's  Miscellanies, 
vol.  2,  p.  99.) 


The  Grace  of  Ordinatzon.  237 

do  it,  and  if  he  do  it  not,  he  violates  his  promise  to 
the  Church,  and,  if  disciph'ne  could  be  enforced,  he 
should  be  stripped  of  his  office  and  sent  back  to  the 
ranks. 

(4)  Again,  we  are  likely  to  wdtness  a  declining 
interest  in  the  written  Word  because  of  the  special 
prominence  given  of  late  to  the  Sacramental  system 
of  the  Church.  This  is  a  point  of  much  delicacy 
and  difficulty  ;  and  while  my  own  views  are  clear 
and  positive,  I  desire  to  state  them  with  the  utmost 
care  and  moderation.  I  would  warn  you  against  a 
certain  tendency,  but  I  have  no  wish  to  intensify 
the  warning  b}^  exaggerating  the  tendency.  We 
are  living  in  a  time  of  reactions,  or,  some  say,  of 
transitions,  from  extremes  produced  by  antecedent 
conditions  of  religious  thought.  If  we  have  had 
too  much  of  the  subjective,  the  emotional,  the  ex- 
perimental, we  are  now  threatened  with  too  much 
of  their  opposites.  If  we  have  had  too  much  indi- 
viduahsm,  it  is  only  natural  that  we  should  look 
for  high- wrought  assertions  of  what  is  corporate  and 
organic  in  our  Christianity.  If  our  spiritual  life, 
for  a  time,  unduly  dej)reciated  the  Sacraments  in 
favor  of  other  and  less  formal  and  outward  means 


238  Condones  ad  Cleriwi. 

of  grace,  the  drift  now  is  not  only  to  restore  the 
bahmce,  but  to  overload  the  hitherto  neglected  side 
of  the  scales.  I  may  be  mistaken,  but  it  has  seemed 
to  me  that  sin  regarded  as  personal  guilt,  and  faith 
and  rei^entance  regarded  as  the  inward  conditions  of 
pardoning  grace,  are  not  now  so  strongly  or  habitu- 
ally dwelt  upon  as  the  channels  and  seals  of  that 
grace.  It  is  not  so  much  what  man  is  and  what 
man  needs,- nor  what  God  actually  does,  as  the  way 
in  which  He  does  it,  the  ordinances  through  which 
He  specially  covenants  to  act,  that  chiefly  engages 
attention. 

So  the  overfilled  fields  give  way  to  the  fallow 
ones,  and  the  Church's  husbandry  instinctively 
shifts  backward  and  forward,  not  only  to  secure 
the  needed  variety,  but  also  the  needed  rotation 
of  crops.  It  is  idle  to  complain  of  this  law  of 
thought  and  life  in  things  spiritual.  God  is  in  it  as 
much  as  He  is  in  the  things  affected  b}''  it.  It  is 
for  us  to  study  its  metes  and  bounds,  and,  so  far  as 
we  can,  to  save  its  several  orbits  of  movement  from 
mutual  encroachment.  Now,  I  submit  to  you,  as 
men  having  understanding  of  the  signs  of  the  times, 
whether  there  is  not  danger,  lest  the  constantly  in- 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  239 

creasing  emphasis  with  which  many  of  our  teachers 
dwell  upon  the  surpassing  virtue  of  the  spiritual 
food  received  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  shall  create  a 
partial  disrelish  for  the  spiritual  food  which  resides 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures  ?  Are  there  not  those  among 
us,  and  a  growing  company  too,  who  teach  and  live, 
pray,  and  practise  as  though  it  were  a  settled  fact 
that  tJiere  is  only  one  sort  of  feeding  on  Christ — 
(and  that  a  sacramental  one),  which  can.  really 
nourish  and  edify  the  soul  ?  Nay  more,  has  it  not 
come  to  tliis  in  some  quarters,  that  the  only  really 
vital  and  efficacious  approach  to  Christ,  as  our  High 
priest  and  Saviour,  is  the  approach  to  Him  as  pres- 
ent on  the  altar  under  the  forms  of  the  consecrated 
elements  ? 

Observe,  I  do  not  question  the  intrinsic  great- 
ness of  the  gift  conferred  by  the  Sacrament,  nor 
the  dignity  of  the  Altar,  nor  the  virtue  of  what  is 
done  upon  it  and  around  it.  Even  Chrysostom's 
language  about  "  the  empurpling  blood  of  sacriiice, 
and  tiie  priest  standing  over  the  sacrifice  and  pray- 
ing, and  all  stained  with  that  precious  blood, '  ^  are  not 
too  strong  for  me  as  picturing  figuratively  to  the 
devout  eye  the  mystery  and  glory  and  power  of  this 


240  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

eliief  memorial  of  tlie  crucified.  But  I  do  question 
the  riglit  and  the  truth  of  so  presenting  this  Sacra- 
ment as  to  dwarf  and  obscure  other  and,  in  their 
time  and  place,  equally  needful  means  of  grace.  I 
am  not  willing  to  sanction  a  school  of  thought,  or  a 
style  of  ritual  which,  in  order  to  magnify  our  Lord's 
presence  and  work  in  these  His  "  creatures  of  bread 
and  wine,"  has  little,  by  comparison,  to  say  of  Him 
as  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls  walking 
in  the  green  pastures  of  the  written  Word  ;  or  as  the 
one  Advocate  and  Intercessor  who  gathers  up  our 
prayers  and  entreaties  wherever  we  are,  whether  in 
the  sanctuary,  or  in  the  desert,  or  on  the  lonely 
seas,  or  in  the  chamber  of  sickness  and  sorrow,  and 
pleads  them  over  again  in  the  ear  of  the  Almighty 
Father  ;  or  as  the  Lamb  of  God  moving  among  the 
golden  candlesticks,  Head  over  all  things  to  His 
Church.  It  may  be  claimed  that  theoretically  and 
as  a  matter  of  theological  principle,  there  is  no 
conflict  between  the  higliest  conception  of  the  nature 
and  uses  of  this  Sacrament  and  other  means  of  grace. 
It  may  be  claimed,  too,  as  evidence  of  this,  that 
other  means  of  grace  are  either  preparatory,  or  aux- 
iliary, or  supplementary  to  the  Eucharist.     In  one 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  241 

or  the  other  of  these  ways  Baptism,  Confirmation, 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  prayer  render  essential  service, 
and,  rightly  treated,  fall  into  harmony  of  relation 
and  unity  of  jDurpose.  This  may  hold  true  in  the 
case  of  carefully  educated  and  thoroughly  disci- 
plined minds,  that  can  keep  in  plain  sight  the  entire 
scheme  of  redemption  as  a  v»^hole  and  in  all  its  parts. 
But  certainly  it  is  not  true  of  the  average  Christian. 
With  most  persons  this  remarkable  and  habitual  ex- 
altation of  one  part  of  the  scheme  tends  strongly  to 
the  disparagement  and  ultimately  to  the  neglect  of 
other  parts.  Especially  is  this  so  when  it  is  iterated 
and  reiterated  to  believers  :  Come  often  and  reg- 
ularly to  the  Sacrament,  and  your  chief  duty  is 
done.  Christ  is  in  that  as  He  is  in  nothing  else. 
The  fulness  of  His  grace  is  there,  and  having  found 
Him  there,  you  need  not  be  solicitous  to  find  Him 
elsewhere.  There  you  have  all  necessary  spiritual 
food.  There  and  there  only  are  the  most  gracious 
promises  fulfilled,  whether  relating  to  remission  of 
sin,  or  to  sanctification,  or  to  growth  generally  in 
the  graces  of  the  divine  life.  There  you  can  wor- 
ship as  nowhere  else.  There  you  can  believe  and 
repent  and  pray  with  an  efficacy  and  comfort  assured 


242  Coiiciones  ad  Cle7^7im. 

in  nothing  else.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  as  I  have 
alleged,  that  this  line  of  teaching,  when  pressed  so 
ardently  and  almost  exclusively,  does  help  to  dwarf 
the  current  estimate  and  practical  use  of  many  other 
provisions  of  our  religion  in  the  mind  of  the  aver- 
age believer,  and  eminently  that  provision  which 
asserts  the  preciousness  of  the  Scriptures  to  a  sym- 
metrically-developed Christian  life. 

Our  supreme  want  is  Christ  as  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life.  Once  grafted  into  Him  by  baptism,  and 
strengthened  in  confirmation  by  the  sevenfold  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  so  made  partakers  of  His 
divine  nature,  the  soul  draws  near  and  feeds  on  Him 
as  its  Saviour  in  all  the  various  modes  of  His  mani- 
festation. All  the  blessings  of  redemption  are  from 
God  the  Father,  tlirough  the  incarnate  Son,  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  in  the  Church,  which  is  Christ's  body, 
and  therefore  the  habitation  of  the  Spirit,  This 
one  channel  divides  off  into  many  subordinate  chan- 
nels. Through  all  the  grace  we  need  flows  freely. 
Through  some  it  flows  regularly  and  by  reason  of 
special  promise  and  appointment.  Faith,  repent- 
ance, charity  are  at  once  gifts  of  the  Spirit  and  essen- 
tial elements  of  spiritual  life.     They  must  be  ours 


The   Graee  of  Ordination.  243 

before  we  can  go  to  tlie  Sacrament.  So  far  from 
being  the  fruits,  they  are  tlie  forerunners  of  the 
Sacrament,  For  all  this  side  of  the  new  life  there 
must  be  due  provision.  To  say  the  least,  it  is  as 
important  as  any  other  side  of  that  life,  and  the 
things  which  God  has  ordained  to  minister  to  it  are 
as  needful,  have  as  vital  an  efficacy,  as  any  other 
thing  (the  Sacrament  included),  which  He  has 
ordained  to  minister  to  another,  but  not  higher 
side  of  that  life. 

ISTow,  the  written  "Word  is  simply  the  "Word  in- 
carnate set  forth  to  us  by  the  pen  of  inspiration 
— set  forth  too  in  the  transcendent  and  unspeak- 
able fulness  of  all  His  offices  as  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King — set  forth  as  teaching  and  ruhng,  guid- 
ing and  comforting,  suffering,  crucified,  risen,  and 
ascended  into  heaven.  The  Sacrament,  too,  sets 
forth  the  incarnate  "Word,  contains  Him,  if  you 
please,  after  a  mystical  manner,  offers  Him  in  a 
special  way  as  our  spiritual  food  and  sustenance. 
He  comes  to  us  in  a  visible,  and  vivid  memorial 
appointed  by  Himself  and  to  continue  until  He 
come  again — a  memorial  which  is  the  sign,  the  seal, 
the  pledge  of  our  incorporation  with  Him  and  with 


244  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

all  faithful  people,  and  of  tlie  blessings  that  arise 
from  such  incorporation,  including  that  of  the  pres- 
ervation of  body  and  soul  unto  everlasting  life.  It 
is  a  distinct  and  abundant,  but  not  exclusive,  chan- 
nel of  the  blessings  it  conveys.  At  no  stage  of  our 
spiritual  life  does  the  one  Yine  pour  through  it  into 
the  branches  all  its  saving  and  sanctifying  virtue. 
Assuming  what  will  not  be  denied,  that  not  only 
"the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,'*  but  that  Jesus  Himself 
is  in  the  Scriptures  as  well  as  in  the  Eucharist,  it 
would  be  presumjDtion  in  me  to  comment  upon  the 
comparative  fulness  and  power  with  which  each 
presents  Him  to  Christian  believers.  It  is  enough 
tliat  the  conclusion  be  established  that  neither  so  pre- 
sents Him  as,  in  the  divine  intent,  to  interfere  with, 
or  displace  the  office  of  the  other.  In  saying  thus 
much,  1  have  not  meant  to  assert  or  imply  that  the 
minds,  in  which  this  drift  lurks,  consciously  feel  it 
or  deliberately  further  it.  It  is  what  I  deem  an  in- 
evitable and  harmful  result  of  a  certain  tone  of 
thought,  and,  sometimes,  method  of  teaching,  against 
which  I  have  warned  you.  If  I  have  overrated  it, 
no  one  will  be  more  glad  to  knov*'"  it  than  I.  I  leave 
this  branch  of  the  subject  with  one  more  remark. 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  245 

There  was  a  long  stretch  of  centuries  in  the  Church's 
history  when,  owing  to  the  practical  burial  or  wide- 
spread oblivion  of  the  written  Word,  it  was  only 
natural  that  believers  should  turn  to,  and  be  taught 
so  to  do,  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  the 
only  mode  of  witnessing  to  His  presence  and  His 
work.  We  should  be  thankful  that  such  a  witness 
survived  in  ages  so  dark  with  ignorance  and  super- 
stition. But  what  was  natural  then  is  strange  now, 
when  the  Word  lies  open  to  every  eye  that  chooses 
to  read  it. 

(5)  I  pass  to  another  and  very  different  phase  of 
my  subject.  Among  the  causes  helping  on  the  de- 
chne  of  a  devout  and  diligent  study  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  is  the  multiplicity  and  attractiveness  of 
the  intellectual  pursuits  ojDened  up  by  the  widening 
fields  of  knowledge.  New  themes,  and  new  modes 
of  handling  old  themes,  are  constantly  pressed  upon 
our  attention.  Every  day  is  adding  to  the  stock  of 
general  truth.  Inquiry  is  pushed  in  all  directions, 
and  that  week  is  a  blank  which  does  not  announce 
some  fresh  discovery.  Even  our  ascertained  knowl- 
edge in  history,  philosophy,  physics,  literature  is  all 
the  while  threatened  with   revisions   and   amend- 


246  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 


ments.  No  study  can  be  named,  relating  to  man  or 
nature,  that  has  not  been  indefinitely  extended  within 
our  own  generation.  So  true  is  this  that  most  edu- 
cated men  despair  of  keeping  up  with  the  progress  of 
all  branches  of  knowledge,  and  are  dropping  off  into 
specialists.  Excellence  is  attainable  ho  longer  in  all 
fields  of  inquiry,  and  with  difficulty  in  any  one. 
Scientists  and  litterateurs  are  prompt  to  announce 
each  his  special  pursuit,  and  are  not  aggrieved  when 
reminded  of  their  ignorance  of  other  pursuits. 
They  are  content  to  do  some  one  thing  well.  IN'ot 
only  divisions,  but  subdivisions  of  labor  have  be. 
come  an  imperative  necessity  in  our  modern  life. 
But  what  other  vocations  do  freely  and  openly,  ours 
timidly  shrinks  from  doing.  The  average  clergy- 
man thinks  it  a  disgrace  not  to  be  accounted  as  one 
not  only  well  furnished  in  his  own  calling,  but  up 
to  the  times  in  all  ways.  He  fancies  that  he  must 
be  a  man  of  wide  information  and  varied  culture  if 
he  would  not  lose  caste.  He  knows  that  a  lifetime 
given  to  theology  alone  would  be  too  short  to  com- 
pass the  vast  area  of  thought  and  learning  over 
which  it  spreads.  He  knows  what  an  inexhaustible 
realm  is  thrown  open  to  him  by  the  Scriptures  and 


The  Grace  of  Ordznatzon.  247 

the  studies  whicli  help  to  a  knowledge  of  the  same. 
He  knows  what  lies  behind  him,  too,  in  sacred  his- 
tory. Each  of  these  might  claim  the  devotion  of 
his  best  years  and  the  noblest  energies  of  his  mind, 
and  yet  leave  him  only  partially  schooled  in  their 
lessons.  And  yet  he  does  not  face  the  issue  as  other 
men  do,  by  settling  down  calmly  and  patiently  to 
his  own  line.  He  is  tempted  into  compromises  and 
compromises  sweep  him  out  into  shallowness.  He 
diffuses  and  dilutes  himself  until  a  certain  weakness 
overtakes  him  in  everything.  He  is  neither  strong 
in  the  pulpit,  nor  strong  in  scholarship,  nor  strong 
in  exact  knowledge  of  anything.  The  pains  and 
penalties  of  the  smatterer  dog  his  steps  turn  where 
he  will.  ]l^ow,  in  this  profitless  scattering  of  mental 
force  we  have  an  explanation  of  the  shm  attain- 
ments in  sacred  lore  of  not  a  few  of  our  clergy. 
In  attempting  to  grasp  too  much,  they  let  slip  the 
one  sort  of  knowledge  the  want  of  which  is  inex- 
cusable. It  is  unpardonable  for  a  minister  of  Christ 
to  find  time  for  reviews  and  newspapers  and  novels 
and  fugitive  essays  on  a  thousand  topics,  and  it  may 
be  for  the  more  sober  and  thoughtful  issues  of  cur- 
rent literature,  and  then  to  plead  lack  of  time  for  the 


248  Condones  ad  Clertun. 

regular  and  diligent  study  of  God's  Word.  That 
study  and  the  studies  affiliated  with  it  are  the 
solemnly  enjoined,  publicly  declared,  sacredly 
pledged  business  of  his  life.  They  must  precede 
and,  if  need  be,  supplant  and  exclude  all  others.  No 
side  excursions  can  be  undertaken  while  the  main 
road  is  untra veiled.  To  be  strong  in  the  Scriptures  is 
the  one  thing  needful.  The  promise  to  be  so  is  the 
only  one  the  Church  exacts  from  us  in  the  whole 
round  of  mental  equipment,  and  if  we  fail  to  keep 
it,  it  matters  not  what  reputation  we  may  gain  else- 
where. Close  thinking,  philosophical  subtlety,  wide 
reading,  varied  culture,  sesthetic  taste  are  all  desir- 
able, but  they  are  no  substitute  for  a  devotional  and 
critical  knowledge  of  the  one  message  that  w^e  are 
commissioned  to  deliver.  The  memories  of  Ordi- 
nation are  simply  insulted  by  the  man  who  prides 
himself  on  his  French  and  German,  and  knows  next 
to  nothing  of  the  tongues  in  which  propluts  and 
evangelists  and  apostles  recorded  the  wonderful 
works  of  God. 

Still  further,  while  it  would  be  unwise  and  un- 
safe to  isolate  ourselves  from,  or  be  regardless  of , 
the  main  currents  of   thought  sweeping  by  us — for 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  249 

if  we  are  to  serve  man  we  must  know  what  is 
uppermost  in  his  brain  as  well  as  in  his  heart — 
yet  if  any  class  toiling  for  his  elevation  have 
a  right  to  be  specialists  that  class  are  the  clergy. 
They  cannot  be  altogether  students.  The  cloistered 
retreats  of  scholarship  are  not  for  them.  As  much 
at  least  as  those  of  any  other  vocation,  their  duties 
are  practical.  A  thousand  things  call  them  down 
from  the  higher  walks  of  thought.  A  sick  man 
tossing  with  fever  in  a  by  street,  a  death  in  the  ten- 
ant house  attic  or  in  chambers  painted  with  ver- 
miHon,  a  waj^ward  member  of  the  flock  falling  off 
into  vice  and  wretchedness,  the  unrepentant  and  the 
ignorant  needing  to  be  admonished  of  their  sins  and 
taught  the  way  of  life,  households  shutting  up 
within  their  walls  domestic  unfaithfulness,  dissen- 
sion, and  wretchedness,  weary  souls  seeking  com- 
fort and  guidance  amid  hfe's  trials,  hungry  souls 
asking  to  be  fed,  little  by  little,  as  they  have  time 
and  opportunity,  with  the  bread  of  life,  frequent 
services  in  the  sanctuary,  and  the  orderly  instruction 
of  the  assemblies  of  God's  people — these  are  calls 
not  to  be  put  aside  on  the  plea  of  quiet  hours  and 
uninterrupted  studies.      They  are  voices   of   God 


250  Condones  ad  Cleriim. 

throiigli  His  suffering  children,  sometimes  jarring 
and  unpleasant,  but  always  sacred,  whicli  a  true 
priest  had  better  himself  perish  than  disregard. 
How  they  break  in  on  our  dreams  of  high  thinking 
and  our  self-chosen  schemes  of  systematic  literary 
work  !  How  imperatively  they  shut  up  the  just- 
opened  book  that  has  begun  to  absorb  us,  and  com- 
mand us  to  lay  down  the  pen  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  mind  pulsates  with  the  throbs  of  a  long- 
looked-for  inspiration  !  It  is  our  lot  to  be  teachers, 
not  discoverers,  to  be  doers  rather  than  thinkers,  to 
apply  the  truth  already  in  hand  rather  than  to  explore 
new  fields  of  truth,  to  represent  a  Master  already 
enthroned,  a  kingdom  already  established,  and  to 
utter  the  finished  message  of  the  one  and  the  com- 
pleted law  of  the  other,  rather  than  to  speculate 
about  the  possibilities  of  other  leaderships  and  other 
empires.  I  say  this  is  our  lot,  our  vocation,  our 
ministry.  Is  it  too  exacting  and  irksome  ?  Is  the 
path  too  steep  or  too  narrow  ?  Do  flesh  and  blood 
chafe  under  it  ?  There  is  but  one  answer.  The 
one  High  Priest  of  the  ages  so  ordered  it,  and  He 
calls  no  man  to  follow  Him  in  it  to  whom  self  is 
dearer  than  the  glory  ot  God  and  the  gift  of  eternal 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  251 


life  to  a  dying  world.  Intellectually,  then,  we 
cannot,  more  than  others,  do  all  things  well.  It  is 
enough  that  we  do  that  well  unto  which  we  were 
set  apart,  finding  in  it  our  strength  and  our  joy, 
meanwhile  neither  coveting  nor  despising  other 
men's  goods, 

(6)  1  have  now  called  attention  to  several  influ- 
ences more  or  less  unfavorable  to  such  a  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  as  is  required  by  our  Ordination  en- 
gagements. It  remains  for  me  to  speak  of  another, 
of  the  prevalence  of  which  I  shall  venture  no  opin- 
ion. I  would  rather  speak  of  it  as  a  temptation  than 
as  an  actual  fault,  as  an  enemy  to  be  watched  rather 
than  as  one  already  within  the  camp.  Whatever 
the  power  over  us  of  the  tendencies  which  have  just 
been  considered,  none  of  them  throws  a  doubt  upon 
our  good  intentions,  or  questions  our  devotion  to 
God's  word,  or  impeaches  our  industry  in  acquiring 
the  collateral  knowledge  which  shaU  fit  us  to  under- 
stand and  expound  it.  But  can  I  with  candor  stop 
here  ?  Are  not  some  of  us  tempted  to  be  careless 
and  indolent  in  the  performance  of  this  duty  ?  Do 
all  of  us  turn  to  account,  as  we  might,  the  resources, 
and  opportunities  that  we  possess  ?     After  allowing 


252  Condones  ad  C lev  urn. 

for  the  thousand  distractions  and  hindrances  that 
beset  us,  do  we  throw  the  time  and  labor  at  our 
command  into  this  duty  as  we  ought  ?  Are  our 
Bibles  well  worn  with  use  ?  Have  they  been  taken 
up  into  us  and  we  into  them  by  such  a  constant,  life- 
giving  reciprocity  as  will  express  and  complete  it- 
self, sooner  or  later,  in  mutual  assimilation  and 
finally  in  identity  of  tone  and  purpose  ?  Are  the 
needed  helps  always  at  our  side  ?  Are  the  words 
ever  recurring  to  our  lips,  "  Open  now  mine  eyes 
that  I  may  see  the  wondrous  things  of  thy  law  ?" 
Or,  on  the  other  hand,  do  we  study  the  Word  only 
as  the  humor  takes  us,  or  under  some  special  urgency 
of  preparation  for  the  pulpit  or  the  lecture-room, 
or  when  some  inquiring  parishioner  crowds  upon  us 
a  special  difficulty  or  a  troublesome  doubt  ?  Do 
we  seek  to  be  wise  in  the  Scriptures,  fully  armed  at 
every  point,  saturated  through  and  through  with 
their  spirit,  or  are  we  content  with  not  seeming  to 
others  to  be  ignorant  of  what,  professionally,  we  are 
bound  to  know  ?  I  shall  not  presume  to  answer 
these  questions.  Each  must  do  so  for  himself  and 
to  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts.  But  it  will  be  no 
breach  of  charity,  certainly,  to  say  that  there  are 


The  Grace  of  Ordinatio7t,  253 

some  painful  proofs  of  negligence  in  this  matter, 
wliicli  the  honor  of  the  Church,  the  credit  of  the 
ministry,  and  the  good  of  souls  call  upon  us  to  re- 
move without  stopping  for  explanations  or  apologies. 
To  this  counsel  I  add  another  by  way  of  cau- 
tion. The  most  thoughtful  among  the  clergy  are 
the  ones  to  be  most  affected  by,  because  most  sen- 
sitive to,  the  doubting  tone  of  the  time.  "Whereas, 
in  the  past  generation,  this  or  that  Christian  dogma 
was  assailed,  now  the  very  records  of  Christianity 
are  pushed  to  the  front  of  the  battle  between  the 
Church  and  her  adversaries.  I  need  not  recount 
the  characteristics  of  the  several  hostile  schools  of 
criticism  and  philosophy,  nor  describe  their  various 
modes  of  attack.  The  fact  that  they  have  sown 
beside  all  waters  the  seeds  of  distrust  and  suspicion 
is  enough  for  my  purpose.  It  is  only  what  might 
be  expected  that  all  the  studies  of  the  clergy,  whether 
exegetical,  or  dogmatic,  or  historical,  should  have 
more  or  less  reference  to  this  fact  ;  some  of  us  hardly 
work  out  a  sermon  without  having  in  mind  some 
one  of  the  recent  doubts  touching  the  Faith  or  the 
Scriptures.  It  may  be  that  we  do  not  overrate  the 
prevalence  of  these  doubts  in  the  general  mind  or 


254  Co7iciones  ad  Clerum. 

In  the  minds  of  our  own  people,  nor  the  importance 
of  meeting  them  ;  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  we  do 
allow  them  too  much  influence,  as  well  upon  our 
own  frame  of  mind,  as  upon  the  aim  and  mode  in 
which  we  study  God's  word.  Difficulties  there  are, 
and  we  should  be  ready  to  meet  them.  But  it  is 
one  thing  to  read  the  Word  that  we  \n.2c^  find  Gocfs 
message  to  maoi,  and  quite  another  thing  to  read  it 
that  we  may  find  ansioers  to  what  man  has  to  say 
against  it.  Man's  objection  may  be  very  serious, 
but  God's  truth  is  of  vastly  more  consequence. 
There  never  was  a  positive  that  was  not  followed 
by  eviscerating  negatives,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
in  our  zeal  to  cut  away  the  latter  we  may  loosen  our 
hold  on  the  former.  It  is  God's  own  law  that  no 
man  is  qualified  to  study  what  He  has  revealed  un- 
less he  can  first  believe  that  a  revelation  has  been 
given.  God  speaks  to  faith,  and  what  He  says  can 
be  known  only  by  faith.  This  law,  and  no  special 
emergency  of  doubt,  no  transient  phase  of  human 
thought,  no  demand,  of  unbelief  on  this  side  or  that, 
no  new  criticism  or  philosophy,  no  fresh  ventures  of 
infidelity,  be  they  English,  or  French,  or  German, 
or  Dutch,  must  determine  our  mental  attitude  and 


The  Grace  of  Ordmation.  255 

fix,  as  a  lighthouse  upon  the  rock,  the  dominant 
aim  of  our  studies.  Kot  a  few  active  and  energetic 
temperaments  are  restive  under  the  restraints  which 
this  law  imposes.  They  have  a  combative  turn  and 
enjoy  the  exercise  of  the  controversial  faculty  in 
the  stir  and  din  of  conflict.  There  is  something 
that  wakens  them  to  unusual  effort  and  brings  into 
play  the  weapons  slowly  forged  by  years  of  study. 
Some  new  line  of  doubt,  some  freshly-planned  as- 
sault, some  starthng  cry  of  the  enemy  advancing  to 
breach  the  walls  where  they  seem  most  unprotected, 
is  to  them  the  coveted  signal  for  taking  down  from 
the  shelf  helmet  and  shield  and  sword.  If  there 
were  no  dangers,  no  friction,  no  conflict,  their  theo- 
logical life  would  stagnate  and  their  vocation  would 
be  robbed  of  one  of  its  dearest  charms.  Others, 
again,  put  forth  a  distinct  effort  to  bring  themselves 
into  intellectual  sympathy  with  assailants  of  the 
faith.  Their  sense  of  candor  and  fairness  is  grati- 
fied by  imagining  themselves  in  the  place  of  their 
foes  with  a  view  to  testing  the  strength  of  their 
position.  Tliey  fancy  that  they  must  first  realize 
the  doubt,  domicile  it  in  their  hearts,  before  they  can 
Bucceesfully  cope  with  it.     As  to  know  what  temp- 


256  Condones  ad  Cleritm. 

tation  is  we  must  first  be  tempted,  so  with  the  doubts 
and  difiiculties  of  minds  that  thej  desire  to  lift  up 
to  the  plane  of  faith. 

Still  others,  again,  who  have,  as  they  believe, 
their  feet  firmly  poised  on  the  truth,  are  moved  by 
a  certain  chivalry  of  intellect,  a  sort  of  passion  for 
adventure  in  putting  the  claims  of  faith  alongside 
the  problems  of  sceptical  criticism.  They  are  not 
willing  that  all  the  boldness  and  courage  should  be 
on  the  side  of  the  assailing  party.  They  are  ready 
to  take  up  a  position,  however  hazardous,  provided 
only  it  be  outside  the  customary  defences. 

]^ow,with  all  these  types  of  character  the  tenden- 
cy is  to  drift  away  from  habits  of  quiet  study  and 
tranquil  meditation.  They  ponder  the  Word  of  Life 
as  close  thinkers  and  acute  inquirers,  but  their  line 
of  thought  has  more  to  do  with  qualifying  them  to 
do  battle /br  the  faith,  than  with  building  them  up 
in  the  life  which  is  the  fruit  of  faith.  It  is  their 
misfortune  to  gather  all  other  fruits  from  the  Scrip- 
tures but  "  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness." 
Missing  this,  they  miss  what  the  Scriptures  were 
intended,  before  all  else,  to  yield.  It  may  be 
doubted,  therefore,  whether  the  most  scholarly  and 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  257 

gifted  minds  are  always  tlie  ones  that  derive  the 
most  spiritual  benefit  from  their  own  v/ork.  Some 
things  are  withheld  from  the  wise  which  are  revealed 
nnto  babes.  Aright  attitude,  a  proper  frame  tow- 
ard the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  is  of  more  conse- 
quence than  great  learning  ;  and  if  this  be  true  of 
all  believers,  it  is  eminently  so  of  those  ordained  to 
be  pastors  of  the  flock.  For  how  shall  they  duly  rep- 
resent Christ  unless,  above  and  beyond  all  else,  they 
have  in  them  the  mind  of  Christ  ? 

In  all  that  has  been  said,  it  has  been  my  purpose 
to  deal  with  the  hindrances  to  the  diligent  and  right- 
minded  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  Though  often 
tempted  to  enlarge  upon  its  attractions  and  advan- 
tages as  well  on  purely  intellectual,  as  on  moral  and 
spiritual  grounds,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  con- 
fine myself  to  a  view  of  the  subject  that  could  not 
fail  to  be  of  practical  moment,  because  suggested  by 
tendencies  without  and  by  experiences  within,  of 
which,  in  these  days  of  reactions  and  transitions  in 
nearly  all  matters  of  religion,  none  of  us  could  be 
ignorant.  I  hav^e  tried,  moreover,  to  avoid  all  dog- 
matism of  thought  and  language,  striving  above  all 
for  such   candor   and  moderation  of   statement  as 


258  Condones  ad  Clerum. 

would  commend  what  I  have  deemed  it  my  duty  to 
say  to  all  who  desire  to  think  fully  and  fairly  on 
this  and  kindred  subjects. 

I  conclude  with  the  wDrds  of  a  learned  and  dis- 
tinguished biblical  student  whose  soundness  in  the 
faith  and  earnestness  of  Christian  living  are  the  best 
evidence  of  the  scope  and  spirit  of  his  studies. 

"It  is  not  merely  to  inform  the  understanding  that 
Holy  Scripture  is  to  be  read  with  such  consummate 
attention  and  studied  with  such  exceeding  care.  It 
is  not  for  the  illustration  of  history,  or  in  order  that 
it  may  be  made  a  test  of  the  value  of  other  systems 
of  morals  ;  or  to  render  a  man's  pulpit  addresses  at- 
tractiv^e,  or  even  to  enable  a  parish  priest  to  teach 
with  confidence  and  authority,  that  he  is  entreated 
now  '  to  prevent  the  night  watches,'  if  need  be, 
that  he  may  be  occupied  with  God's  Word,  Oh  no  ! 
It  is  in  order  that  his  inner  hfe  may  be  made  con- 
formable to  that  outer  law  ;  that  his  aims  may  be 
ennobled,  and  his  motives  purified,  and  his  earthly 
hopes  made  consistent  with  the  winning  of  an  im- 
perishable crown  !  It  is  in  order  that  when  he 
wavers  between  right  and  wrong,  the  unutterable 
canon  of  God's  Law  may  suggest  itself  to  him  as  a 


The  Grace  of  Ordination.  259 

constraining  motive.  Its  aim  and  real  function  is 
that  the  fiery  hour  of  temptation  may  find  tlie  Chris- 
tian soldier  armed  with  '  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
which  is  the  Word  of  God, '  that  the  dark  season 
of  adversity  may  find  his  soul  anchored  on  the  Eock 
of  Ages,  which  alone  can  prove  his  soul's  sufiicient 
strength  and  stay.  Under  every  form  of  trial, 
under  every  strange  vicissitude,  in  sickness  and  in 
perplexity  and  in  bereavement  and  in  the  hour  of 
death,  '  Lord — to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou, 
tTiou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life  ! '  "  * 

*  Burgon's  "  Inspiration  and  Interpretation,"  pp.  21,  22. 


APPE^^DIX  A. 

An  at  once  proof  and  illustration  of  tlie  low  estate 
into  wliicli  the  dominant  casuistry  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  has  fallen  in  these  days,  I  cannot  forbear  to 
quote  certain  statements  in  a  late  work  which  are 
as  true  and  timely,  as  they  are  trenchant.* 

"  The  Roman  Church  Uncertain  in  Morals  "  is 
the  heading  under  which  the  following  appears  : 

"  One  great  use  of  religion — in  one  sense  the  very 
greatest  use — is  to  guide  and  govern  men's  conduct 
and  TTiorals.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  seeing 
how  man's  own  standard  of  right  and  wrong  shifts 
and  wavers,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  day — as, 
for  example,  in  the  last  century,  drunkenness  was 
popularly  thought  no  disgrace — that  the  Church 
should  have  a  fixed  and  certain  rule  of  morals,  and 
that  rule  as  pure  and  lofty  as  God's  own  Word. 
Tet  the  Roman  Church  not  only  has  got  no  such 

*  "Plain  Reasons  against  Joining  the  Churcli  of  Rome.' 
By  Dr.  Littledale.     (Pp.  10-13.) 


262  Appendix  A. 

standard  now,  but  Las  actually  set  up  one  which  is 
lower  and  baser  and  more  uncertain  by  far  than  the 
popular  one  of  ordinary  folk  who  make  no  pretence 
to  bo  religious.  It  has  come  about  in  this  way — 
partly  in  order  to  make  religion  a  very  easy  thing, 
so  as  to  prevent  man  from  shaking  it  off  altogether  ; 
but  partly  also  to  provide  excuses  for  many  evil 
things  constantly  said  or  done  to  promote  the  inter- 
ests of  Romanism  itself — a  system  has  been  steadily 
built  up  called  casuistry,  for  dealing  with  separate 
cases  of  sins  which  at  any  rate  seem  to  be  condemn- 
ed by  broad  general  laws  of  God.  And  this  casuis. 
try  is  now  governed  by  a  principle  called  probahil- 
ism,  the  simple  meaning  of  which  is  this  :  That  if 
something  be  plainly  forbidden  by  God's  law  of 
morals,  and  you  have  a  mind  to  do  it,  you  may  do 
it  in  tlie  teeth,  not  only  of  the  Bible,  but  of  most  of 
the  chief  writers  on  morals,  provided  you  can  get 
the  opinion  of  one  casuistical  writer  in  your  favor, 
even  though  it  be  plainly  weaker  and  less  probable 
than  that  of  those  who  bid  you  obey  God's  la,w.  It 
is  just  as  if  a  man  could  claim  acquittal  of  any  crime 
die  had  committed,  though  forbidden  by  the  laws  of 
Great  Britain,  and  punished  scores  of  times  over  by 


Appendix  A.  263 

the  courts  of  justice,  if  he  would  plead  that  he  got 
an  opinion  from  some  tenth-rate  barrister  that  there 
was  no  wrong-doing  in  it.  If,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
high  hne  were  taken  by  Roman  casuists  on  moral 
questions,  perhaps  no  great  practical  harm  could  be 
done  by  this  theory  ;  but  there  is  hardly  any  sin, 
however  heinous,  for  which  they  do  not  find  ex- 
cuses. And  the  chief  authority  on  morals  now  in 
the  Roman.  Church  is  St.  Alfonso  Liguori,  whose 
teaching  all  Roman  CatJiolio  confessors  are  noio 
hound  to  follow  in  the  confessional,  since  he  has  been 
raised  to  the  rank  of  a  '  Doctor  of  the  Church. ' 

"Asa  saint,  according  to  the  Roman  doctrine, 
there  can  be  no  error  in  his  writings,  but  as  a  doctor^ 
not  only  is  there  no  error  in  his  writings,  but  it  is  nec- 
essai^y  to  submit  to  his  teachings.  (Benedict  XIV. , 
"  De  Canonizatione, "  iv.  2  ;  xi.  11.)  J^ow,  he  says, 
for  example  :  (1)  That  the  actual  assassins  of  a  man 
are  not  equally  guilty  with  their  instigator,  whom  he 
admits  to  incur  excommunication  ("  Theol.  Moral." 
iv.  364)  ;  (2)  That  if  A  murder  B,  in  order  that  C 
may  be  suspected  of  the  murder,  and  thereby  suffer 
loss  of  any  kind,  A  is  not  bound  to  make  C  any 
compensation  unless  he  be  a  '  worthy  person  '  (iv. 


264  Appendix  A. 

587)  ;  (3)  That  if  a  clerical  adulterer  be  caught  by 
the  husband,  he  may  lawfully  kill  the  husband,  and 
does  not  incur  '  irregularity'  tliereby,  provided 
his  visit  was  secret,  so  that  he  had  a  reasonable  ex- 
pectation of  escaping  detection  ;  though,  if  he  have 
openly  braved  the  diuiger,  he  does  incur  '  irregular- 
ity '  (iv.  398)  ;  (4)  That  an  adultei'ess  may  deny 
her  sin  on  oath,  either  by  saying  that  she  has  not 
broken  the  marriage  tie  (since  adultery  does  not  void 
it),  or,  if  she  have  gone  to  confession,  that  she  is 
innocent  of  the  sin  because  it  has  been  waslied  away 
in  confession  ;  or,  again,  that  she  has  not  committed 
it,  i.e.^  so  as  to  be  bound  to  acknowledge  it  (i v.  162)  ; 

(5)  That  a  man  may  swear  aloud  to  any  false  state- 
ment, provided  he  add  some  true  circumstances  in 
an  undertone,  unheard  by  the  bystanders  (v.  108)  ; 

(6)  That  it  is  lawful  to  swear  to  a  quibble  or  to  per- 
jure one's  self  before  a  judge,  if  any  great  loss  or  in- 
convenience would  follow  to  a  witness  from  speak- 
ing the  truth  (iv.  151-6)  ;  (7)  That  a  nobleman 
ashamed  to  beg  or  work,  may  steal  to  supply  his 
needs  if  he  be  poor  (iv.  520). 

' '  Further,  Liguori  republished  as  a  text-book  and 
dedicated  to   Pope  Benedict  XI Y.,  the  '  Marrow  of 


Appendix  A.  265 

Moral  Theology,'  by  Biisenbaum,  the  Jesuit,  from 
which  the  following  maxims  are  taken  : 

"  (1)  Avery  poor  man  may  steal  what  is  necessary 
for  the  relief  of  his  own  want  ;  and  what  a  man  may 
steal  for  himself,  he  may  also  steal  for  any  other 
very  destitute  person  ;  (2)  Any  one  trying  to  pre- 
vent such  a  theft  may  be  lawfully  killed  by  the  thief 
(Tom.  iii.  lib.  iii.  par  1,  Tract  5,  c.  1). 

' '  Escobar,  another  famous  casuist,  lays  down  that 
a  member  of  a  religions  order  who  lays  aside  his 
habit  for  a  short  time,  in  order  to  commit  some  sin 
undetected,  does  not  sin  heinously  nor  incur  ex- 
communication {Theol.  Moral,  I.  xliv.  213). 

"  These  are  only,"  adds  the  writer,  "  a  very  few 
examples  out  of  many  affecting  every  one  of  the 
moral  commandments." 


APPEIs^DIX  B. 

In  a  note,  page  10,  stating  the  powers  and  func- 
tions of  the  priesthood,  that  relating  to  the  remit- 
ting of  sins  was  included,  together  with  a  brief  ref- 
erence to  the  several  authorized  methods  of  exer- 
cising this  power,  the  last  named  of  which  was  Ab- 
solution. This,  with  its  immediately  affiliated  top- 
ics, has,  of  late  years,  and  for  reasons  known  to  all, 
been  pushed  into  great  prominence  in  all  discus- 
sions touching  the  powers  of  the  priesthood  and  the 
discipline  of  the  Church.  The  time  has  come 
when  it  is  imperatively  necessary  for  the  clergy  to 
displace  vague  impressions  and  crude  or  uncertain 
opinions  on  it  by  definite  and  positive  convictions, 
resting  upon  the  mind  of  Scripture  as  interpreted 
and  practised  by  this  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
It  is  impossible  to  thrust  it  aside  ;  indifferent  we 
cannot  be.  Whatever  a  particular  school  may  hold, 
and  whatever  may  be  the  doubt  lingering  in  some 
minds  in  regard  to  it,  there  is  no  question  as  to  the 


Appendix  B.  267 

attitude  or  tlie  testimonj  of  tliis  Cliurcli  concerning 
it,  so  far  as  they  are  capable  of  authoritative  defini- 
tion ,  apart  from  the  action  of  a  duly  called  and  duly 
organized  synod  of  the  whole  Anglo-American 
Church.  Only  less  than  the  formal  authority  of 
such  a  hody  was  that  of  the  late  Lambeth  Confer- 
ence (1878),  composed  of  Archbishops,  bishops 
Metropolitan,  and  other  bishops  of  the  Holy  Catho- 
lic Church,  in  full  communion  with  the  Church  of 
England,  one  hundred  in  number,  all  exercising 
superintendence  over  dioceses  or  lawfully  commis- 
sioned to  exercise  episcopal  functions  therein,  many 
of  them  from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  earth, 
and  assembled  under  the  presidency  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  This  Conference,  among 
other  important  acts,  put  upon  record  and  pub- 
lished to  the  Church  with  a  unanimous  approval, 
the  following  declaration  which,  in  covering  the 
subject  of  Confession,  covers  also,  by  necessary  in- 
ference, that  of  Absolution,  for  the  view  of  Con- 
fession which  it  condemns  has  neither  force  nor  rel- 
evancy except  as  it  is  connected  with  a  correspond- 
ing view  of  Absolution. 

(1)  It  affirmed  "  that  in  the  matter  of  Confession 


268  Appendix  B. 

the  Churclies  of  the  Anglican  Communion  hold  fast 
those  principles  which  are  set  forth  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  which  were  professed  by  the  Primitive 
Church,  and  which  were  reaffirmed  at  the  English 
Reformation. 

(2)  ' '  That  no  minister  of  the  Church  is  authorized 
to  require  from  those  who  may  resort  to  him  to 
open  their  grief  a  particular  or  detailed  enumeration 
of  all  their  sins  ;  to  require  private  confession  pre- 
vious to  receiving  the  Holy  Communion  ;  or  to  en- 
join or  even  encourage  the  practice  of  habitual  con- 
fession to  a  priest  ;  or  to  teach  that  such  practice  of 
habitual  eonfesson,  or  the  being  subject  to  what  has 
been  termed  the  direction  of  a  priest,  is  a  condition 
of  attaining  to  the  highest  spiritual  hfe. 

(3)  ' '  That  at  the  same  time  they  are  not  to  be  un- 
derstood as  desiring  to  limit  in  any  way  the  pro- 
vision made  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  for 
the  relief  of  troubled  consciences." 

It  would  seem  impossible  to  use  plainer  or 
stronger  language.  When  this  declaration  was  put 
forth,  it  was  expected  that  it  would  provoke  criti- 
cism and  dissent  among  those  whose  teaching  and 
practice  were  rebuked  with  so  much  emphasis,  but 


Appendix  B.  269 

it  was  not  expected  that  any  attempt  would  be 
made  to  evade  or  explain  it  away.  And  yet  sueli 
attempts  liave  been  made  and  witli  a  boldness  and 
assurance  simj^ly  astounding. 

Having  given  the  Declaration  of  the  Conference, 
I  think  it  well  to  give  the  grounds  on  which  it  was 
based,  and  I  shall  do  this  in  the  admirable  words  of 
Dr.  Wordsworth,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  is  not 
more  renowned  for  his  learning  than  for  his  sound- 
ness in  the  faith.  I  do  not  mean  that  what  follows 
was  actually  presented  to  the  Conference  and  for 
mally  adopted  by  it,  but  merely  that  it  states  with 
substantial  correctness  the  views  held  by  ninety-five 
hundredths  of  those  whose  names  were  signed  to 
the  letter  of  wliich  the  above  declaration  formed  a 
part. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Bishop  introduces 
what  he  has  to  say  on  Confession  with  some  general 
observations  on  Absolution. 

"  Unhappily  the  forms  of  public  absolution,  in  the 
Church  of  England,  are  now  undervalued  by  some, 
on  two  pleas  ; 

(1)  Because  they  are  declaratory  and  precatory, 
that  is,  because  in  them  the  priest  declares  and  pro- 


270  Appendix  B. 

nounces  forgiveness  in  God's  name,  and  for 
Christ's  sake,  as  in  the  daily  office  ;  or  because  (as 
in  the  Communion  Service)  he  prays  for  the  be- 
stowal of  pardon  from  God  on  those  who  have  con- 
fessed their  sins,  but  does  not  say  ' '  I  absolve  thee 
from  thy  sins,"  and  because  in  their  opinion  (as  in 
that  of  the  Trent  Council*)  the  principal  force  of 
the  form  of  what  the  Church  of  Rome  calls  the 
Sacrament  of  Penance  consists  in  the  use  of  those 
words,  "  Ego  dbsolvo  ^e,"  and  because  consequently 
the  use  of  that  form  is  necessary  ;  and  further, 

(2)  Because  the  above  words  of  absolution  are 
spoken  in  piiblic  to  many  persons  confessing  their 
sins  to  God,  and  not  in  private  to  one  singly  con- 
fessing his  sins  to  the  priest. 

With  regard  to  the  first  of  these  reasons  we  may 
reply,  that,  if  it  had  any  weight,  there  was  no  ab- 
solution of  sins  pronounced  in  the  Church  for  eleven 
hundred  years  after  Christ,  inasmuch  as  it  is  un- 
questionable that  all  the  forms  of  absolution  used 
in  the  Church  during  that  time  were  declaratory^ 

*  Concil.  Tridentin.  Sess.  xiv.  cap.  3,  and  Thomas  Aquinas, 
Sumnia,  Pars  iii.  qu.  84  ;  cp.  Hooker,  VI.  iv.  3. 
f  Peter    Lombard,  one    of    the  greatest   Roman  Catholic 


Appendix  B.  271 

or  precatory,  2ii:\di  the  form,"/  absoUe  thee'^ 
(altliough  an  allowable  form*  wlien  rightly  ap- 
plied), was  not  used  till  the  eleventh  century  after 
Christ,  and  has  not  been  used  in  the  Greek  Church 
to  this  day. 

divines  and  schoolmen  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  scholar  of  St. 
Bernard,  and  professor  of  theology  at  Paris,  afterward  bishop 
there  (a.d.  1160),  and  commonly  called   the  "  Master  of  the 
Sentences,"  affirmed  that  all  forms  of  absolution  were  in  fact 
declaratory.     (See  the  remarkable  words  in  hig  "  Libri  Seuteu- 
tiarum,"   Lib.  iv.,  Distinct.  18,  p.  375,    ed.  Paris,    1841.)     He 
thus  speaks  :  '*  It  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said,  that  God 
himself  releases  the  penitent  from  liability  to  punishment  ;  and 
he  releases  him  then  when  he  enlightens  his  soul  and  gives  him 
true  contrition  of  heart.      Therefore,  he  is  not  loosed  from 
everlasting  wrath  by  the  priest  to  whom  he  confesses  his  sin, 
but  he  is  already  loosed  by  God,  to  whom  he  has  made  his 
confession."  And  Peter  Lombard  then  quotes  St.  Ambrose,  St, 
Augustine,  and  St.  Jerome  to  the  same  effect ;  and  compares 
the  work  of  absolution  to  the  raising   of  Lazarus  from  the 
grave.     Lazarus  was  raised  by  Christ,  who  afterward  com- 
manded his  disciples  to  loose  him  from  his  grave-clothes,  and 
let  him  go.     (John  11  :  44.)    So  it  is  with  the  penitent.      And 
(following  St.  Jerome  in  his  note  on  Matt,  16)  he  illustrates  it 
by  the  act  of  the  Levitical  priest,  avIio  declared  the  leper  to  be 
clean,  and  to  be  restored  to  communion  with  the  people  of 
God  ;  but  the  act  of  healing  was  the  act  of  God,  and  of  God 
alone  ;  and  "  God  regards  not  so  much  the  sentence  of  the 
priest  as  the  heart  and  life  of  the  penitent." 
*  See  Bingham,  xix.  ii.  6. 


2/2  Appendix  B. 

This  is  acknowledged  by  tlie  most  learned  divines 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  herself,*  and  has  been 
shown  at  large  by  our  own  writers,  f 

The  second  allegation  is,  that  the  virtue  of  abso- 
lution consists  in  Wio,  jprivate  exercise  of  the  priestly 
office  on  the  souls  of  individuals  in  the  Confes- 
sional ;  and  that  our  Lord's  words  had  special  refer- 
ence to  that  exercise. 

This,  then,  brings  us  to  examine  the  question  of 
private  confession. 

What  is  to  be  said  concerning  it  ? 

First,  let  it  not  be  supposed:}:  that  we  would  dis- 
parage that  sober  and  comforting  use  of  "  the  min- 
istry of  reconciliation,  "§  which  Holy  Scripture  and 

*  E.g.,  Morinus,  "  De  Penitentia,"  lib.  viii.  c.  8.  The  work 
of  Thomas  Aquiuas  in  dufeuce  of  that  form  may  be  seen  in  his 
■works,  vol.  xix.  p.  17G,  ed.  Venet.  1787. 

f  E.g.  Abp.  Ussher,  "  Answer  to  a  Jesuit,'-'  p.  89  ;  see  also 
Bp.  Fell  in  his  edition  of  St.  Cyprian,  "  De  Lapsis,"  p.  136  ; 
and  Marshall  in  his  learned  work  on  the  "  Penitential  Dis- 
cipline of  the  Ancient  Church,"  chap.  iii.  sect.  iv.  ;  Bingham, 
"  Antiquities,"  xix.  ii.,  and  vol.  viii.  p.  450-454. 

X  Some  sentences  which  follow  have  been  printed  by  the 
author  in  the  Twelve  Addresses  delivered  at  his  visitation  in 
1873. 

§  2 -Cor.  5  :  18. 


Appendix  B.  273 

the  Primitive  Church  sanction,  and  which  the 
Church  of  England  commends  to  her  children,  in 
special  cases,  in  the  Exhortation  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, and  in  the  Office  for  the  Yistation  of  the 
Sick.*  "We  do  not  forget  that  our  best  divines  have 
recommended  it,  in  certain  circumstances,  and  under 
certain  conditions,  f  and  that  the  most  celebrated 
foreign  Reformers,  Calvin,  Beza,  and  the  authors 
of  the  Lutheran  "Confession,":}:  have  done  the 
same.  On  the  contrary,  we  feel  persuaded  that  in 
this  as  in  other  matters,  the  abuse  of  what  in  special 
cases  and  under  certain  restrictions  is  good  and 
wholesome,  holy  and  wise,  has  created  a  prejudice 
against  the  use  of  it. 

The  Church  of  England,  in  her  Exhortation  to 
the  Holy  Communion,  recommends  private  confes- 
sion of  sin  to  those  of  her  children  who  "  cannot 
otherwise  quiet  their  own  consciences,  but  require 

*  Compare  Hooker,  VI.  iv.  6  and  15. 

t  E.g.,  Bp.  Jewel,  "  Apol.,"  p.  158,  ed.  1611  ;  Hooker,  VI. 
vi.  5,  especially  Ridley,  "  Life  of  Bishop  Ridley , "  pp.  136,  145, 
153,  236.  336,  578. 

X  Calvin,  "  Institut.,"  iv  c.  1  ;  Beza,  Homil.  16,  in  "  Hist. 
Resurrect.,"  p.  394,  395  ;  "  Confessio  Augustan.,"  Art.  xi.  xii. 
Cheranit.  Cou.  Trid.  pp.  878,  894. 


2  74  Appendix  B. 

further  comfort  and  counsel. ' '  And  in  her  Office 
for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  she  says  that  if  the 
sick  person  feels  his  conscience  troubled  with  any 
weighty  matter,  he  is  to  be  moved  by  the  priest  to 
make  a  special  confession  of  his  sins. 

The  reasons  why  she  does  this  in  the  former  of 
these  two  special  cases  are  clearly  stated  by  herself, 
in  that  Exhortation  ;  and  the  causes  why  she  does 
it  in  the  latter  are  declared  by  Hooker,*  as  fol- 
lows :  "  They  who  during  life  and  health  are  never 
destitute  of  ways  to  elude  repentance,  do,  notwith- 
standing, oftentimes  when  their  last  hour  draweth 
on,  both  feel  that  sting  which  before  lay  dead  in 
them,  and  also  thirst  after  such  helps  as  have  been 
always  till  then  unsavory.  .  .  .  Yea,  because 
to  countervail  the  fault  of  delay,  there  are  in  the 
latest  repentance,  oftentimes,  the  surest  tokens  of 
sincere  deahng,  therefore,  upon  special  confession 
made  to  the  minister  of  God,  he  presently  absolv- 
eth,  in  this  case,  the  sick  party  from  all  his  sins 
by  that  authority  which  Jesus  Christ  hath  com- 
mitted to  him. ' '  But  surely,  to  infer  from  these  two 
exceptional    cases    that    the   Church   of    England 

*  Hooker,  VLiv.  5. 


Appejtdix  B.  275 

authorizes  her  ministers  to  recommend  private  con- 
fession as  a  regular  practice  is  strangely  to  pervert 
her  words,  and  to  affirm  that  she  intends  her  clergy 
to  feed  her  children  with  medicines  which  she  has 
provided  for  the  sick. 

Again,  she  exhorts  those  who  are  troubled  in 
mind,  and  who  cannot  quiet  their  own  consciences, 
to  resort  ' '  to  some  discreet  and  learned  minister  of 
God's  Word,  and  open  liis  grief  ;  that  by  the  min- 
istry of  God's  Holy  Word  he  may  have  the  benefit 
of  absolution,  together  with  ghostly  counsel  and  ad- 
vice, to  the  quieting  of  his  conscience,  and  avoiding 
of  all  scruple  and  doubtfulness. ' '  But  some  among 
us  would  invert  this  order  ;  they  would  constrain 
the  people  of  a  parish  to  come  habitually  and  con- 
fess to  their  minister,  who  may  be  some  youthful 
priest,  perhaps  neither  learned  nor  discreet,  and 
who  may  be  more  able  to  create  scruples  and  doubt- 
fulness in  the  minds  of  others  than  to  quiet  them 
by  the  ministry  of  God's  Holy  Word.  And  some 
would  persuade  us  that  the  solemn  words  of  our 
Blessed  Lord,  pronounced  at  the  Ordination  of 
Priests  at  the  laying  on  of  hands,  have  been  spoken 
to  little  purpose  unless  the  newly-made  priest  ap- ' 


276  Appendix  B. 

plies  himself  at  once  to  exercise  liis  ministry  by  hear- 
ing private  confessions  and  by  pronouncing  private 
absolutions. 

The  Church  of  Rome  wsiely  requires  that  a  per- 
son who  undertakes  the  difficult  and  responsible 
office  of  hearing  confessions  should  be  eminent  in 
theological  science,  learning,  and  wisdom,* 

This  is  a  grave  and  serious  matter.     In  the  med- 

*  See  the  Trent  Catechism,  pt.  ii.  cap.v,  qii.  49,  where  this 
rule  is  laid  down,  "  Ut  hujus  sacramenti  minister  tuni  scienlia. 
et  eruditione  lum  prudentia.  praeditus  sit.  Judicis  euim  et 
medici  simul  personam  gerit.  Ex  quo  i^oterunt  fideles  intel- 
ligere,  cuivis  maximo  studio  curandum  esse,  ut  eum  sibi 
sacerdotem  eligat,  quem  vitue  iutegrilas,  doctrina,  prudens 
judicium,  commendet,  qui,  quai  cuique  sceleri  poena  conveniat, 
et  qui  vel  solvendi  vel  ligaudi  sint,  optime  noverit. "  Carlo 
Borromeo,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  in  his  "  Monita  ud  Confes- 
sores"  of  his  diocese,  thus  writes  :  "  Let  no  secular  or  regular 
priest  presume  to  minister  the  sacrament  of  penance  (in  this 
diocese)  unless  he  has  first  obtained  from  us  a  written  license 
and  faculty  to  do  so,  as  the  Council  of  Trent  prescribes  ;  other- 
wise he  will  have  incurred  excommuuication  ipso  facto."  It 
would  be  well  if  priests  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  are 
eager  to  constraia  others  to  come  to  them  for  confession, 
would  carefully  read  these  "  Monita  ad  Coufcssores"  of  one  of 
the  wisest  and  holiest  bishops  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  In  the 
Greek  Church  (says  Dr.  Covel  on  the  "  Greek  Church,"  p. 
353),  "  II  confessor  ought  to  be  a  most  expert  casuist,  and  be  at 
'fea^t  forty  years  old» 


Appendix  B.  277 

ical  treatment  of  our  perisliable  bodies,  quackery  is 
punishable  by  law.  Surely,  spiritual  empiricism, 
which  may  jeopardize  the  health  of  immortal  souls, 
ought  not  to  escape  scot-free.  The  physician  of  the 
body  is  not  allow^ed  to  write  a  prescription  without 
having  obtained  a  diploma  ;  and  shall  any  one  ven- 
ture to  undertake  the  office  of  a  penitentiary  in  the 
Church  of  God,  without  being  duly  qualified  and 
authorized  to  do  so  ?  Heaven  forbid  !  I  confess 
that  when  I  think  of  devout  persons,  especially 
young  women  of  ardent  affections  and  delicate  sen- 
fiibilities,  being  invited,  and  almost  constrained,  per- 
haps, by  some  youthful  priest,  to  resort  habitually 
to  private  confession,  I  shudder  at  the  thought. 
By  so  doing,  instead  of  looking  up  to  God  as  their 
loving  Father,  having  His  ear  open  to  their  prayers, 
and  ever  ready  to  receive  them  on  their  faith  and 
repentance,  as  His  dear  children  in  Christ,  they  are 
led  to  look  to  a  man,  and  to  seek  comfort  and  for- 
giveness of  him.  They  put  themselves  under  his 
dominion,  and  thus  submit  tlieir  will,  reason,  and 
conscience  to  him^  and  rob  Christ  of  themselves, 
whom  He  has  purchased  with  His    own    Blood.* 

*  1  Ccr.  6:20;  T  :  83      Oal.  5:1. 


278  Appendix  B. 

And  further,  Ly  being  tempted  to  brood  over  tlieir 
own  sj)iritual  sensations,  emotions,  and  symptoms, 
and  to  talk  or  write  of  tliem  to  tlieir  chosen  spiritual 
guides,  they  are  in  danger  of  acquiring  an  egotisti- 
cal spii'it  of  seK-consciousness,  and  of  morbid  and 
hypochondriacal  sentimentalism,  and  to  lose  that 
healthful  vigor  and  genuine  freshness  and  holy 
beauty  of  soul  which  are  produced  and  cherished  by 
direct  communion  with  God,  and  by  looking  up- 
ward to  Him,  and  by  losing  self  in  adoration  of 
Him,  and  in  zeal  for  His  glory,  and  in  love  for  His 
presence  in  the  heart — which  is  the  life  of  angels. 
I  shrink  from  the  thought  of  the  anatomical  dissec- 
tion of  consciences  to  which  such  votaries  are  re- 
quired to  submit,  and  from  that  long  catalogue  of 
interrogatories  which  may  be  seen  in  some  "  Man- 
uals of  Confession" — as  taught  and  practised  by  the 
Church  of  Rome* — and  which  are  an  outrage 
against  purity,  modesty,  and  virtue. 

It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped,  for  reasons  such  as 
these,  that  the  desires  and  intentions  of  some  per- 
sons to  introduce  the  practice  of  private  confession 

*  E.g.,  that  of  Peter  Dens. 


Appendix  B.  279 

into  Englisli  scliools,  public  and  private,  may 
never  be  realized. 

But  let  the  clergy  be  exliorted  to  cultivate  liabits 
of  personal  intercourse  with  their  parishioners, 
especially  the  young,  in  preparing  them  for  Confir- 
mation^ and  as  members  of  communicant  classes. 
And  let  them  urge  upon  them  the  importance  and 
necessity  of  regular  self-exam^ination  y  and  for  this 
purpose  let  them  recommend  to  each  of  them  some 
good  manual  of  self-examination,  such  as  may  be 
found  in  Bishop  Ken's  "Exposition  of  the  Church 
Catechism. ' ' 

Private  confession  is  exacted  by  the  Church  of 
Kome,  which  has  converted  penance  into  a  sacra- 
ment ;  and  she,  by  requiring  private  confession  as  a 
prerequisite  to  the  Ploly  Communion,  places  one 
sacrament,  made  by  herself,  as  a  bar  to  the  recep- 
tion of  the  Sacarament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  insti- 
tuted by  Christ.*  And  whereas  the  Holy  Spirit 
says,  by  St.  Paul,  "  Let  a  man  examine  himself^ 
and  so  let  him  cat  of  that  bread  and  drink  of  that 

*  "  Concil.  Lateran."  IV.  a.d.  1215,  can.  21;  "  Concil. 
Trident.,"  Sess.  xiii,  cap.  7,  can.  11;  "Catechism.  Rom,.," 
Part  II.,  cap.  iv.  qu.  43.     Cp.  Hooker,  VI.  iv.  3. 


28o  Appendix  B. 

cup,"*  she  says,  "Let  a  man  confess  to  a  priest 
and  submit  himself  to  be  examined  by  a  priest,  and 
so  let  him  come  to  Comnmnion  ;"  and  also,  where- 
as St.  Johnf  says,  "  If  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,"  she  ven- 
tures to  say  that  it  is  necessary  to  resort  to  the 
human  minister  in  order  to  obtain  pardon  from 
God,  whose  servant  he  is.  And  confession  in  the 
Church  of  Rome  is  not  so  much  a  voluntary  unbur- 
dening of  sorrow  on  the  part  of  the  penitent,  as  an 
inquisitorial  scrutiny  of  the  penitent  on  the  part  of 
the  priest. 

Holy  Scripture  speaks  much  concerning  the  duty 
of  repentance,  but  in  no  case  does  it  require  con- 
fession, as  a  matter  of  necessity,  to  any  one  but 
God. 

The  examples  of  acknowledgments  of  sin  which 
are  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  as  being  made 
to  men  are  either  public  avowals  of  public  sin,  as 
that  of  those  who  came  to  St.  John's  Baptism,:}: 
and  of  the  men  at  Ephesus,§  and  of  St.  Paul  at 
Jerusalem,  for  his  share  in  the  death  of  St.  Stephen,  || 

*  1  Cor.  11  :  28.  f  1  John  1:9.  %  Matt.  3  : 6. 

§  Acts  19: 18.  \  Acts  23:20. 


Appendix  B.  281 

-^ 

or  else  they  were  confessions  of  wrong  clone  to  a 
brother,  and  with  a  petition  for  pardon  from  him, 
as  those  specified  by  St.  James,*  To  cite  again  the 
words  of  Richard  Hooker  :t  "  There  are  men  that 
would  seem  to  honor  Antiquity,  and  none  more  to 
depend  on  the  reverend  judgment  thereof.  1  dare 
boldly  affirm  that  for  many  hundred  years  after 
Christ,  the  Fathers  held  no  such  opinion  concern- 
ing our  Saviour's  words,  '  Whose  sins  ye  remit  they 
are  remitted,  and  whose  sins  ye  retain  they  are  re- 
tained '  (John  20  :  23)  ;  they  did  not  gather  by  our 
Saviour's  words  any  such  necessity  of  seeking  the 
priest's  absolution  from  sin  by  secret  and  (as 
they  now  term  it)  sacramental  confession  ;  public 
confession  they  thought  necessary  by  way  of  dis- 
cipline, not  private  confession  as  in  the  nature  of 
a  sacrament,  necessary."  Again,  he  says,  (YI. 
4  :  14)  :  "In  the  times  of  the  Holy  Fathers  it  was 
not  the  faith  and  doctrine  of  God's  Church,  as  it  is 
of  the  Papacy  at  the  present  time,  (1)  that  the  only 
remedy  for  sin  after  baptism  is  sacramental  peni- 
tency  ;  (2)  that  confession  in  secret  is  an  essential 
part  thereof  ;  (3)  that  God  himself  cannot  now  for- 
*  James  5  :  14,  16.  f  Hooker,  YI.  iv.  6. 


282  Appendix  B. 

» 

give  sin  with  out  the  priest  ;  (4)  that  because  for- 
giveness at  the  hands  of  the  priest  must  arise  from 
confession  in  the  offenders,  therefore  confession 
unto  him  is  a  matter  of  such  necessity  as  being  not, 
either  in  deed  or  at  the  least  in  desire,  performed, 
excludeth  utterly  from  all  pardon.  jSTo,  no  ;  these 
opinions  have  youth  in  their  countenance.  An- 
tiquity knew  them  not  ;  it  never  thought  or 
dreamed  of  them. ' ' 

Public  confession  is  recommended  to  penitents 
by  Tertullian*  and  by  Cyprianf  and  St.  Ambrose, :j: 
with  a  view  of  obtaining  the  benefit  of  the  prayers 
of  the  Church.  In  the  third  century,  as  it  seems, § 
in  order  to  obviate  the  scandals  that  arose  "  from 
the  multitude  of  public  penitents,""  the  Greek 
Church  appointed  some  one  presbyter  to  be  a  peni- 
tentiary in  each  church,  to  receive  voluntary  con- 
fessions in  j)rivate,  with  a  view  to  public  penance,  if 

*  Tertullian,  "  De  Poenitent.,"  c.  9  and  c.  10  ;  Bingham, 
Book  VII.  chap.  iii. 

t  St.  Cyprian,  "  De  Lapsis,"  c.  14 

X  St.  Ambrose,  "  De  Pcenitentia,"  ii.  7;  Quid  tereris  apud 
honum  Dominum  tuas  iniquitatesfateri?  and  ii,  10,  Fleatpro  te 
Mater  Ecclesia  ;  amat  Christus  ut  pro  uno  muUi  rogent. 

§  See  Mr.  Keble  on  Hooker,  VI.  iv.  9. 


Appendix  B.  283 

requisite,  and  consequent  absolution  by  the  bishop. 
But  this  office  was  abohshed  by  Nectarius,  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century,*  and  the  successor  of  Nectarius,  St.  Cliry- 
sostom,  in  several  places  gives  as  his  counsel  to  pen- 
itents to  confess  their  sins  to  God  ;  but  disclaims 
any  desire  of  making  them  confess  to  man.f  Let 
the  reader  refer  to  the  testimonies  collected  by 
Bingham  on  this  subject.:}:  At  that  time,  confes- 
sion of  secret  sins  to  God  alone  was  the  practice  of 
the  Church.  §  Public  offenders  were  put  to 
public    penance,  but  the  confession  of  secret  sins 

*  Socrates,  H.  E.,  v.  19  ;  Sozomen  vii.  16.  Cp.  Hooker, 
VI.  iv. 

f  St.  Chrysostom,  "  Homil."  xxxi.  "  Epist.  ad  Hebroeos," 
torn.  xii.  p.  289,  ed.  Montfaucon,  and  "  De  Incomprehensibili 
Deinatura,"  Horail.  v.  sec.  7,  torn.  i.  p.  490,  where  lie  says,  "  I 
do  not  lead  theo  into  a  theatre  of  thy  fellow-servants,  or  compel 
thee  to  reveal  thy  sins  to  men  ;  unfold  thy  conscience  before 
God,  and  show  thy  wounds  to  him,  and  beseech  him  to  heal 
them." 

•  X  Cp.  Bingham,  Book  XV.  chap.  viii.  sec.  6,  and  Book 
XVIII.  chap.  iii. 

§  See  Bingham,  chap,  iii.,  and  Marshall's  "  Penitential  Dis- 
cipline," chap.  ii.  sec.  i.  p.  43,  ed.  Oxford,  1844. 


284  Appendix  B. 

was  left  to  the  discretion  and  conscience  of  those 
who  committed  them.* 

Indeed,  if  private  confession  and  private  abso- 
lution were,  as  some  allege,  necessary  to  the  spirit- 
ual health  of  the  soul,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
the  Church  of  God  was  in  a  state  of  spiritual  sick- 
ness from  the  time  of  the  Holy  Apostles  for  1200 
years  ;  for  it  was  not  till  the  year  after  Christ  1215 
that  private  confession  was  made  obligatory  even 
"by  the  Church  of  Rome  ,t  and  then  only  once  a 
year. 

And  now,  let  me  say  a  few  words  in  conclusion. 

In  the  controversies  on  this  subject  which  now 
agitate  the  minds  of  many  among  us,  let  us  endea- 
vor, with  God's  help,  to  cherish  a  spirit  of  calm- 
ness and  of  love.  In  the  strifes  of  earth,  let  us  lift 
up  our  hearts  to  the  peace  of  heaven.  Let  us 
praise  God  for  the  blessings  He  has  bestowed  on  us 
in  the  Church  of  England,  where  we  enjoy,  by  His 

*  Marshall,  p.  44.     Bingham,  Book  XV.  chap.  viii.  sec.  6. 

f  At  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council,  Canon  21,  Concil.  ed. 
Labbe,  xi.  p.  172.  That  private  confession  was  not  enforced 
in  the  twelfth  century  is  clear  from  the  words  of  Gratian,  in 
Jus  Canonicum,  "  Dist.  de  PoenitentiS,"  c.  79. 


Appendix  B.  285 

mercy,  all  things  necessary  for  our  growth  in  grace 
on  earth  and  for  the  attainment  of  everlasting  glory 
in  heaven.  Let  ns  bless  Him  for  the  wisdom  He 
has  given  to  the  Church  of  England  to  pursue  a 
middle  course  between  two  opposite  extremes. 

On  the  one  side,  let  us  shun  the  error  of  those 
who  do  wrong  to  Him,  and  injure  their  own  souls 
and  those  of  others,  by  scorning  those  spiritual 
comforts  which  He  offers  by  the  ministry  of  the 
Christian  priesthood,  deriving  its  authority  from 
Christ,  who  breathed  on  the  Apostles  and  said, 
"  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  whosesoever  sins  ye  re- 
mit, they  are  remitted  unto  them." 

On  the  other  side,  let  us  avoid  the  dangerous  de- 
lusion of  those  who  do  dishonor  to  God  and  to 
Christ,  and  restrain  and  curtail  His  free  grace  and 
mercy  to  the  wounded  and  bleeding  soul,  by  teach- 
ing that  there  is  no  remedy  for  mortal  sin  after  bap- 
tism but  by  ' '  the  Sacrament  of  Penance  ' ' ;  and 
that  no  contrition  of  the  heart,  and  no  confession  of 
the  Kps,  are  of  any  avail,  without  the  intervention 
of  a  spiritual  guide  ;  and  that  no  reparation  of 
wrong,  no  amendment  of  life,  no  works  of  piety 
and  mercy,  no  fasting,  no  almsgiving,  are  of  use 


286  Appendix  B. 

10  the  penitent,  except  imposed  by  a  confessor  ;  and 
who  bind  all  men  npon  pain  of  everlasting  condem- 
nation to  make  private  confession  of  every  great 
offence  tbat  they  know  and  remember  that  they 
have  ever  committed  against  God,  and  who  affirm 
that  He  will  never  pardon  our  sins  imless  we  first 
reveal  them  to  a  priest,  or  earnestly  desire  to  do 
so.* 

Of  these  two  errors,  that  which  I  have  just  de- 
scribed has,  by  an  excess  of  reaction  common  in 
human  affairs,  produced  the  former.  If,  therefore, 
we  are  desirous  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  of  His 
Church,  that  the  Christian  priesthood  should  re- 
ceive due  honor  from  the  people,  let  us  beware  of 
claiming  more  for  it  than  has  been  granted  to  it  by 
Christ,  lest  by  lording  it  over  God's  heritage  (1  Pet. 
5  :  3)  we  forfeit  the  reverence  of  those  whose  love 
is  a  precious  talent  entrusted  to  us  by  Him. 

*  See  "  Concil.  Tridentiu.,"  Sess.  xiv.  chap.  1-9;  "  De 
Sacramento  PiKnitentise;"  Bellamiiuelib.  iv.  "  DePceniteutia," 
torn.  iii.  ed.  1615,  pp.  376-483,  especially  lib.  iii.  p.  435,  where 
he  says  that  "no  one  who  has  sinned  after  baptism  can  be 
"irrstored  without  the  ministry  of  the  priest."  Perrone,  "  De 
Pojaiteutia,"  pp.  344-354,  ed.  Paris,  1843.  Cp.  Hooker,  VI. 
Vi.  Bingham,  vol.  iii.  p.  432. 


Appendix  B.  287 

The  gift  of  pardon  for  sin  is  from  God  alone. 
But  the  assurance  of  the  bestowal  of  the  gift  is  con- 
veyed to  us  by  the  ministry  of  the  priesthood  ;  the 
act  of  which,  in  pronouncing  absolution,  is  a  proof 
to  us  of  the  reahty  of  the  gift,  because  the  ministry 
of  the  priesthood  was  instituted  and  appointed  by 
Christ,  and  is  commissioned  by  Him  to  certify  us 
of  the  fact  of  the  gift.  The  act  of  the  Priest  or 
bishop,  standing  up  in  the  congregation,  while  we 
are  kneeling  on  our  knees,  and  in  that  attitude  of 
authority  pronouncing  absolution  and  invoking 
God's  pardon  upon  us,  in  the  name  of  God,  ' '  who 
hath  given  power  and  commandment  to  his  minis- 
ters to  declare  and  pronounce  to  his  people,  being 
penitent,  the  absolution  and  remission  of  their 
sins,"  is  like  a  royal  seal  and  authentic  sign-manual 
attached  to  a  reprieve,  brought  by  a  royal  officer 
and  delegate  to  a  penitent  criminal,  and  assuring 
him  of  pardon  from  his  sovereign."* 

*  Bishop  of  Liucolu's  Miscellanies. 


APPENDIX  C. 

I  HAVE,  in  general  terms,  contrpisted  the  Mystical 
and  Patristic  with  the  Modern  or  Literal  method  of 
biblical  interpretation.  The  subject  demands  a 
more  particular  treatment.  It  is,  indeed,  surpris- 
ing, when  we  consider  its  grave  importance,  how 
little  attention  it  has  excited  of  late  years  among 
even  the  most  vigilant  observers  of  the  religious  and 
theological  symptoms  of  the  times.  The  two 
methods  have  their  root  and  ground  in  widely-sun- 
dered views  of  the  rules  of  biblical  interpretation, 
as  well  as  of  the  fundamental  canons  of  theology. 
The  ancient  method  is  deductive  and  inductive,  the 
modern  inductive  ;  the  ancient  method  accepts  the 
faith  as  a  completed  thing  from  the  start,  and  regards 
theological  science  as  performing  its  highest  func- 
tion when  it  commits  itself  to  the  task  of  handing 
on  the  Catholic  tradition  of  revealed  truth,  and  of 
ascertaining  the  fidelity  with  which  that  tradition 
has  been  transmitted  unchanged  from  age  to  age. 


Appendix  C.  289 

The  modern  method,  on  the  other  hand,  treats  the 
faith  as  practicallj  a  progressive  science,  and  as  ca- 
pahle  of  indefinite  improvement — as  beginning  in 
crude  imjjerfection  and  as  gradually  evolving  itself 
nto  completeness  under  the  conditions  and  with  the 
helps  of  human  thought  ;  and  by  necessary  conse- 
quence it  conceives  of  Holy  Scripture  as  not  only  con- 
taining the  subject-matter  of  a  formulated  faith,  but 
as  emerging  more  and  more  out  of  the  shadows  of 
past  errors  of  interpretation,  and,  as  it  does  so,  min- 
istering to  the  advance  of  theological  science,  and 
compelling  more  or  less  radical  modifications  in  the 
current  statement  and  formulation  of  the  essentials 
of  the  faith.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Sacred 
Record  itself  affirms  that  the  faith  was  once  and  for- 
ever delivered,  and  that,  as  so  delivered,  the  j)eople 
of  God  are  exhorted  not  only  to  profess  but  ear- 
nestly contend  for  it.  And  yet,  somehow,  the  mod- 
ern method  does  not  deem  it  inconsistent  with  this 
fact  to  insist  that  the  faith  includes  within  itself  the 
possibilities  of  indefinite  improvement,  and  hence 
of  indefinite  change. 

Again,  the  ancient  method  relied  largely  upon 
the  testimony  of  the  Church  to  the  meaning  of  the 


290  Appendix   C. 

Scriptures,  and  accepted  as  its  supreme  canon  of  in- 
terpretation "  the  analogy  of  faitli  " — a  pervading 
unity  in  God's  Word  to  wliich  all  particular  exposi- 
tions of  tlie  'Word  must  be  conformed.  Tliere  was, 
it  believed,  a  continuous  witness,  an  incorporated,  or- 
ganic voice  of  tbe  body  of  Christ,  from  which  no 
individual  interpreter  of  the  Word  was  at  liberty  to 
depart.  The  modern  rule,  on  the  other  hand,  if  it 
does  not  reject  this  voice  of  the  whole  Body,  at 
least  subordinates  it  to  the  mind  of  the  individual 
expositor.  By  this  ruling  every  critic  renounces 
his  prerogatives  who  does  not  bear  himself  as 
though  he  were  a  sufficient  rule  in  himself. 

Thus,  these  methods  are  radically  oj:)posed  to  one 
another  : 

(1)  In  their  conception  of  the  Church  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  Scriptures. 

(2)  In  their  conception  of  the  ancient  creeds  as 
the  formal  and  systematic  expression  of  the  mind 
of  the  Scriptures. 

(3)  In  their  estimate  of  the  authority  of  the  indi- 
vidual judgment  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures. 

(4)  In  their  view  of  the  process,  whether  deduct- 
ive or  inductive,   by  which    the  fundamentals  of 


Appendix   C.  291 

Christianity  are  to  be  discovered  in  and  elaborated 
oiit  of  the  Scriptures, 

(5)  (And  this  is  the  difference  now  especially  un- 
der consideration),  the  two  methods  are  opposed  in 
their  conception  of  the  Word  of  God  itself — the 
one  insisting  that  besides  the  literal,  it  has  often  an 
occult  or  mystical  meaning ;  the  other  that  it  has 
but  one  sense  and  that  the  literal  one. 

(6)  As  an  inevitable  logical  as  well  as  exegeti. 
cal  result  of  these  characteristic  differences,  the 
ancient  method  rests  on  the  assumption  that 
the  Word  of  God  is  in  essence  and  form  the  Word 
of  God,  and  hence  that  it  is  not  to  be  handled 
as  any  other  book  may  be  ;  that  as  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  it  has  attributes  peculiar  to  itself, 
and  that  these  attributes  must  be  admitted  and 
duly  respected  by  any  and  all  criticism  that  hopes  to 
do  it  justice  ;  whereas,  the  modern,  while  admit- 
ting, in  a  somewhat  general  way,  that  such  is  its 
character,  claims  that  we  cannot  deal  justly  and 
truthfully  with  it  unless  we  hold  it  to  be  amenable 
to  precisely  the  same  rules  and  appliances  of  inter- 
pretation which  are  applicable  to  the  pages  of  Ho- 
mer and  Cicero.  • 


292  Appendix   C. 

So  much  by  way  of  general  and  prefatory  state- 
ment, before  entering  upon  the  particular  questions 
now  to  be  discussed. 

Historically,  the  Patristic  or  Mystical  method  has 
held  a  large  place  in  the  mind  of  the  Church  and 
exercised  a  powerful  influence  over  its  theology,  its 
worship,  and  its  life.  This  is  undeniable.  But  the 
issue  now  raised  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  subject, 
obliges  us  to  ask  whether  it  has  any  place  in  reason 
as  well  as  in  history.  Has  it  a  philosophy,  a  ra- 
tionale behind  it  ?  Or,  is  it  at  once  a  creature  and 
a  delusion  of  the  imagination  ?  Certainly,  by  the 
modern  school  it  is  accounted  at  once  a  folly  and  an 
impertinence  ;  and  the  fact  that  it  held  sway  so  long 
is  cited  as  only  another  evidence  of  the  j)atient  ser- 
vility of  the  human  intellect  when  once  brought 
under  the  domination  of  estabhshed  errors.  That  I 
may  do  no  injustice  to  the  general  attitude,  or  to  the 
characteristic  utterances  of  this  school,  let  me  quote 
its  own  language. 

It  is  now  more  than  twenty  years  ago  since  "  Es- 
says and  Reviews  "  appeared — a  volume  which, 
c  >ming  as  it  did,  from  seven  well-known  clergymen 
of  the  Church -of  England,  shocked  the  conscience 


Appendix   C.  293 

and  puzzled  the  common  sense  of  Englisli-speakinp; 
Christians  throughont  the  world.  It  is  now  p:ir- 
tially  forgotten,  or,  at  any  rate,  seldom  recalled, 
and  chiefly  for  the  reason  that  it  has  been  supplant- 
ed by  the  more  advanced  and  honest  scepticism  of 
to-day,  of  which,  in  the  Anglican  Communion,  it 
was  the  half  disguised  and  crafty  avant  courrier. 
Though  many,  at  the  time  it  appeared,  could  not 
persuade  themselves  or  be  persuaded  of  its  mischiev- 
ous character,  there  were  others,  who  had  already 
sunk  to  a  lower  depth  of  unbelief,  that  did  see  and 
expose  it.  The  Westminster  lieview,  No.  3-4,  in 
an  able  and  trenchant  article  on  "  New  Christian- 
ity," declares  that  this  work  had  "discarded  in 
their  ordinary,  if  not  plain,  sense,  the  Word  of 
God,  the  creation,  the  fall,  the  redemption,  justifi- 
cation, regeneration,  and  salvation  ;  miracles,  inspi- 
ration, prophecy,  heaven,  and  hell,  eternal  punish- 
ment and  a  day  of  judgment,  creeds,  liturgies,  and 
articles,  the  truth  of  Jewish  history  and  of  Gospel 
narrative  ;  leaving  a  doubt  even  as  to  the  incarna- 
tion, resurrection,  and  ascension,  the  divinity  of  the 
Second  Person,  and  the  personality  of  the  Third. ' ' 
"  It  may  be,"  says  the  article,  "  that  this  is  a  true 


294  Appendix   C. 

view  of  Cliristianity  ;  but  we  insist,  in  the  name  of 
common-sense,  that  it  is  a  new  view.  Surely,  it  is  a 
waste  of  time  to  argue  that  it  is  agreeable  to  Scrip- 
ture." And  further  :  "  That  of  all  recent  adapta- 
tions [of  Christianity  to  science]  it  is  at  once  the 
most  able,  the  most  earnest,  and  the  most  suicidaiy 
Taking  up  the  volume  to-day,  and  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  effect  it  has  produced,  certainly  there  is 
no  reason  for  altering  this  verdict. 

Yery  appropriately,  the  most  notewothy  writer 
(Professor  Jowett)  in  the  volume  chose  for  himself 
the  most  noteworthy  theme,  i.e.^  "  The  Interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture,"  involving  as  it  did  the  question 
of  inspiration,  and  hence  that  of  the  authority, 
meaning,  and  value  of  the  "Word  of  God.  No  im- 
partial mind  can  examine  this  essay  without  being 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  in  effect,  if  not  in 
design,  it  is  an  artfully  and  elaborately  con- 
structed denial  of  inspiration.  With  this  view, 
and  .with  this  only,  its  most  significant  and  pivotal 
statements  harmonize.  Let  us  see  what  some  of 
these  are. 

In  one  brief  sentence,  "  Interpret  the  Scripture 
like  any  other  book,"  he  lays  down  the  fundamental 


Appendix   C.  295 

rule  whicli  governs  his  method  of  criticism  ;  and  if 
■we  examine  what  he  proposes  and  the  practical  ap- 
plication of  this  rule,  we  find  tliat  the  Scripture  is 
to  be  so  interpreted  because  it  is  like  any  other 
book.  The  rule  does  not  refer  so  much  to  the 
qualities  of  candor,  honesty,  logical  consistency,  and 
exact  thorouglmess  which  ought  to  be  exercised  in 
criticising  any  other  book,  but  to  the  alleged  fact 
that  there  is  no  radical  difference  between  the  Bible 
and  other  books. 

"  The  true  glory  and  note  of  Divinity  in  these 
[Scriptures]  is  not  that  they  have  hidden,  myste- 
rious, or  double  meanings,  but  a  sinvple  and  univer- 
sal one,  which  is  beyond  them  and  will  survive 
them."  "  The  Scripture  has  one  and  only  one  true 
meaning.''^  "To  attribute  to  St.  Paul  or  the 
Twelve  the  abstract  notion  of  Christian  truth  which 
afterward  sprang  up  in  the  CathoKc  Church  .  .  . 
is  the  same  error  as  to  attribute  to  Homer  the  ideas 
of  Thales  or  Heraclitus,  or  to  Thales  the  more  de- 
veloped principles  of  Aristotle  and  Plato."  ISTo  rec- 
ognition is  made  of  the  fact  that  inspiration  in  St. 
Paul  and  the  Twelve,  and  the  want  of  it  in  the 
others,  creates  a  difference  between  them,  and  ac- 


296  Appendix  C. 

counts  for  a  knowledge  in  the  former  wliicli  could 
not  be  looked  for  in  tlie  latter. 

"  The  old  "  explanations  of  Scripture  "  are  no 
longer  tenable.  They  belong  to  a  way  of  thinking 
and  speaking  which  was  once  diffused  over  the 
world,  but  has  now  passed  away.  And  what  we 
give  up  as  a  general  principle,  we  shall  find  it  im 
possible  to  maintain  partially,  e.g.,  in  the  types  of 
the  Mosaic  Law,  and  the  double  meanings  of 
prophecy,  at  least  in  any  sense  in  which  it  is  not 
equally  apjilicable  to  all  deep  and  suggestive  writ- 
ings.^^  It  is  implied,  moreover,  that  as  the  Scrip- 
tures have  but  one  se7ise,  and  that  a  shn])le  and 
universal  one.,  there  neither  is,  nor  ought  to  be  any 
more  difficulty  in  interpreting  them,  than  in  inter- 
preting the  pages  of  Sophocles  or  Plato. 

Now,  it  may  be  said  that  Professor  Jowett  is  an 
advanced  thinker,  a  concealed  or  a  partially  avowed 
rationalist,  that  as  such  he  takes  unwarrantable  lib- 
erties with  Scripture  and  with  the  modern  method 
of  handhng  it,  and  therefore  that  he  cannot  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  fair  expounder  of  the  literal.,  one-sense 
rule.  Let  us,  then,  recede  from  the  extreme  limits 
on  which  he  plants  himself,  and  quote  the  language  of 


Appendix   C.  297 

one  on  tliis  side  tlie  water,  who  occupies  a  position 
of  injiuence  among  us,  and  adorns  that  position  by 
his  admitted  scholarship  and  abihty. 

The  Princeton  liemew,  July  number,  1879,  con- 
tains a  carefully-written  article  "  On  the  Aim  and 
Influence  of  Modern  Biblical  Criticism."  A  few 
quotations  will  sufiiciently  indicate  its  drift  and, 
generally,  the  author's  theory.  Biblical  criticism  is 
treated  as  one  of  the  departments  of  human  knowl- 
edge, subject  to  the  same  law  of  growth  as  other 
sciences,  and  having  its  several  stages  of  progress, 
from  a  crude  beginning  to  its  present  comparative 
perfection,  distinctly  marked  by  successive  eras  of 
discovery  and  scholarship.  He  concedes  to  the  ear- 
liest Fathers  of  the  Church  who  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 
Apostles  considerable  spiritual  insight,  but  owing 
to  their  entire  lack  of  critical  knowledge,  regards 
them  as  entitled  to  little  consideration.  They  had 
not  the  means  of  knowing  the  Word  which  they 
handled,  and  hence  were  quite  excusable  for  their 
ignorance.  That  they  should  have  been  betrayed 
into  many  crudities  and  follies  of  interpretation  was 
only  what  was  to  be  expected  in  view  of  their  prox- 


298  Appendix   C. 

imity  to  tlie  inspired,  apostolic  expounders  of  the 
Scriptures.  That  the  mystical  method  had  its  ori- 
gin in  the  time  of  those  expounders  is  reason  enough 
for  its  untrustworthiness.  "It  is  tiuie  that  all  the 
fathers  were  not  such  mystics  in  their  exposition  as 
Origen,  yet  all  held  the  same  idea  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. ' '  But  inasmuch  as  ' '  the  simplest  laws  of 
knowledge  are  always  the  latest,"  ''  as  alchemy 
must  precede  chemistry,  and  astronomy  must  grope 
its  way  through  the  fancies  of  the  astrologer,"  so 
the  mystical,  patristic  method  naturally  preceded 
the  modern,  literal,  one-sense  method  which  is  to 
usher  in  (if  itself  be  not  that  already)  the  true  and 
perfected  science  of  interpretation.  Again,  as  if  to 
leave  no  possible  doubt  as  to  his  meaning,  this  writer 
says  :  "  As  biblical  scliolars  all  [the  early  Chris- 
tian writers]  were  simply  of  a  time  when  true  criti- 
cism was  hardly  known,"'  "we  may  excuse  the 
early  methods  of  the  Fathers  ;  but  it  is  astonishing 
to-day,  when  a  Christian  scholar  forces  on  the 
Word  of  God  that  style  of  exposition.  Criticism  can 
admit  no  such  mystical  canon.'"  He  quotes  with 
admiring  approval  what  he  calls  the  true  principle 
as  announced  by  TJ^ldall,  ' '  Understand  that  Scrip- 


Appendix   C.  299 

ture  liatli  but  one  sense,  and  tliat  the  literal  sense." 
Our  Anglican  divines  fall  under  his  condemnation 
because  they  taught  and  wrote  after  ''  the  mystical 
canon,"  and  not  after  Tyndall's  ''^  one- sense'''' 
canon.  He  objects  to  "  a  Christology  built  out  of 
any  plain  Psalm  of  David  or  any  rite  of  the  temple 
"worship. ' '  He  rejects  also  without  qualification  the 
analogiafidei  as  having  any  authority  over  the  sci- 
ence of  interpretation.  No  one  who  would  do  his 
work  well  as  a  critic  must  allow  any  pre-established 
dogmas,  i.e.,  any  creed,  whether  that  of  the  Apos- 
tles or  that  of  Nicea  to  regulate  his  judgment  or 
modify  his  conclusions.  It  should  be  added,  that, 
unlike  Professor  Jowett,  this  writer  distinctly 
affirms  the  divine  and  supernatural  character  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  admits  ' '  t^^ical  features  in  the  He- 
brew worship  and  prophetic  passages  which  clearly 
point  to  the  Christ  of  the  New  Covenant" — admits, 
in  fact,  the  existence  of  a  Scripture  typology,  and 
this  in  spite  of  the  T}mdall  ^^  one-sense,  literal'''' 
canon. 

It  is  quite  likely  that  this  writer  would  not  care  to 
accept  any  sponsorship  for  Professor  Jowett's  opin- 
ions ;  and  that,  in  not  a  few  things  connected  with ' 


30O  Appendix   C. 

theology  and  sacred  criticism,  the  two  would  not 
agree.  But  certainly  tliere  is  a  marked  similarity 
in  their  conclusions,  if  not  in  their  premises  and 
logic,  touching  this  whole  subject.  Both  agree,  (1) 
that  the  Scripture  has  but  "  one  senfte  and  that  a 
simple  one";  (2)  so  far  as  can  be  gathered,  both 
agree  that  the  Scripture  "  should  be  intei-preted  like 
any  other  book  ";  and  that,_^^6/'  se,  it  should  be  no 
more  difficult  to  get  at  the  full  and  exact  meaning 
of  Scripture  than  of  any  reputable  Greek  or  Latin 
author  ;  (3)  both  agree,  too,  that  the  critic  should 
free  himself  from  all  dogmatic  restraints  and  give 
no  heed  to  the  ancient  creeds  of  the  Church,  but 
should  go  at  his  woi'k  in  a  spirit  of  absolute  inde- 
pendence and  as  feeling  that  nothing  had  ever 
been  settled  by  competent  authority — so  settled  as 
not  to  be  re-opened  and  disputed  by  anybody's  pri- 
vate judgment  ;  (4)  both  agree,  moreover,  that  Bib- 
lical science  was  of  no  account  in  the  earliest  ages 
of  the  Church,  and  that,  for  the  same  reasons  and 
in  the  same  general  manner  as  all  the  inductive  sci- 
ences, it  has  been  immensely  advanced  by  the  appa- 
ratus of  modern  inquiry.  As  to  some  of  the  results 
of  this  advance,  I  take  it  for  granted  that  these  two 


Appendix  C.  301 

Avriters  would  differ  somewhat,  probably  very  radi- 
cally. For,  as  has  been  seen,  in  the  judgment  of 
very  competent  authority.  Professor  Jowett  has  ex- 
cited grave  suspicion  that  he  no  longer  holds  the  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  of  the  faith  as  they  are  under- 
stood and  received  by  the  common -sense  of  Chris- 
tendom ;  while  it  is  certain  that  this  writer 
would  resent  as  entirely  unwarrantable  any  imputa- 
tion upon  the  soundness  of  his  faith. 

Per  contra,  let  us  inquire  Whether  the  mys- 
tical method  has  not  some  ground  in  reason,  in 
the  nature  of  things— some  respectable  philoso- 
phy at  its  l>ack,  enough  at  any  rate  to  prove  that  it 
is  not  altogether  the  childish  folly  of  uncritical 
minds,  or  the  crude  offspring  of  misguided  though 
devout  imaginations,  which  it  is  the  special  office  ot 
our  advanced  science  of  biblical  criticism  to  rele- 
gate to  the  limbo  of  exploded  conceits. 

Outward  nature  and  Holy  Scripture  stand  side 
by  side  as  revelations  of  the  eternal  Godhead.  How 
they  differ  it  is  not  material  just  here  to  define.  As 
expressions,  though  in  different  spheres  and  for 
different  ends,  of  the  Divine  mind,  they  have,  at 
least,  a  family  likeness,  a  general  analogy.     What 


302  Appendix  C. 

tlie  one  sajs  obscurely,  the  other  says  plainly. 
Where  the  one  stops,  the  other  may  be  said  to  be- 
gin. Man  has  a  natural  relation  to  the  one,  a  su- 
pernatural to  the  other.  From  the  one  he  learns 
the  powers  belon<Ting  chiefly  to  the  life  that  now  is  ; 
from  the  other  he  learns  "  the  powers  of  an  end- 
less life. ' '  But  behind  both  is  the  same  God,  and 
through  both,  the  same  God  speaks.  The  analogy 
extends  further  than  we  can  trace  it,  and  shades  off 
in  countless  directions  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
human  knowledge  ;  but  enough  of  it  is  known  to 
give  a  solid  basis  for  reasonings  which  lawfully  in- 
terpret much  that  is  in  Scripture  by  nature,  and 
much  that  is  in  nature  by  Scripture. 

Now,  nature  is  one  vast  symbol  of  the  God  who 
made  it,  the  work  of  the  "Workman,  the  creation  of 
the  Creator.  It  has  a  double  language,  because  it 
has  a  double  aspect.  It  speaks  for  itself  as  an  ef- 
fect, and  for  a  power  which  is  its  cause.  ' '  The  in- 
visible things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  God- 
head. "*  Nature,  then,  on  this  ground,  is  more 
*  Romans  1  :  20. 


Appendix  C.  303 

than  a  ''  one-sense,  literal  "  fact.  It  lias  its  out- 
ward and  its  inward  meanings,  a  voice  of  matter  and 
a  voice  of  spirit,  the  plain  letter  and  the  mystical 
life  nnder  the  letter — the  visible  symbol  and  the 
inner  power  enshrined  in  the  symbol. 

But  it  is  more  than  a  ^^  one-sense''''  existence  on 
another  ground  and  in  another  way.  Dr.  Mozley, 
in  one  of  his  University  Sermons  (vi.),  has  reasoned 
out  and  illustrated  what  I  mean  with  so  much  power 
of  logic  and  f  ehcity  of  statement,  that  I  gladly  avail 
myself  of  his  remarkable  analysis  and  amplification 
of  the  thought. 

"  Kature  has  two  great  revelations — that  of  use 
and  that  of  beauty.  It  would  not  be  true,  indeed, 
to  say  that  use  was  univ^ersally  accompanied  by 
beauty  ;  still,  upon  that  immense  scale  upon  which 
nature  is  beautiful,  she  is  beautiful  by  the  self -same 
material  and  laws  by  which  she  is  useful.  The 
beauty  of  nature  is  not,  as  it  were,  a  fortunate  acci- 
dent, which  can  be  separated  from  her  use.  The 
beauty  is  just  as  much  a  part  of  nature  as  the  use  ; 
they  are  only  different  aspects  of  the  self- same  facts. 
But  if  they  are  united  in  their  source,  in  themselves 
they  are  totally  separate.     The  beauty  is  as  imme- 


304  Appendix  C. 

diate  a  derivation  from  the  divine  mind  as  the  util- 
ity ;  as  much  a  vision  of  the  divine  raising  as  the 
solid  structure  is  a  machinery  of  the  divine  contriv- 
ance." It  follows  from  this  that  the  poet  is,  to 
say  the  least,  as  true  and  as  necessary  an  interpreter 
of  nature  as  the  scientist.  The  only  difference  is 
that  the  one  does  his  work  by  intuition,  by  feel- 
ing, by  tnysticciZ  communion  with  the  sights,  the 
pictures,  the  appearances  of  nature  ;  the  other  by 
search,  by  analysis,  by  induction,  by  generalization. 
But  again  "  when  the  materialist  has  exhausted 
himself  in  efEorts  to  explain  the  utility  in  nature,  it 
would  appear  to  be  the  peculiar  office  of  beauty  to 
rise  up  suddenly  as  a  confounding  and  baffling  extra, 
which  was  not  provided  for  in  his  scheme.  Physi- 
cal science  goes  back  and  back  into  nature,  but  it  is 
the  aspect  and  front  of  nature  which  gives  the  chal- 
lenge ;  and  it  is  a  challenge  which  no  backward  train 
of  physical  causes  can  meet.  The  physical  causes 
are  only  all  the  separate  items  traced  back  step  after 
step,  which  is  no  explanation  of  their  adjustment 
and  collocation  so  as  to  produce  beauty.  Thus,  the 
more  men  retreat  into  the  interior,  the  farther  they 
fly  from  the  true  problem. "     Further,  this  writer 


Appendix   C.  305 

goes  on  to  show  that,  while  contrivance  has  a  com- 
plete end  and  account  of  itself  v/ithont  any  refer- 
ence to  the  understanding  of  man,  it  being  enough 
that  it  works  and  that  we  profit  bj  its  use  whether 
the  use  be  seen  or  no,  it  is  essential  to  the  verj 
sense  and  meaning  of  beauty  that  it  shoidd  be  seen, 
and  inasmuch  as  it  is  visible  to  reason  alone,  we 
have  thus  in  the  very  structure  of  nature  a  recogni- 
tion of  reason,  and  a  distinct  address  to  reason  ;  a 
thing  wholly  unaccountable  unless  there  is  a  higher 
reason  or  mind  to  make  it.  For  what  but  reason  can 
address  reason. 

''  Beauty  stands  upon  the  threshold  of  the  inysti- 
cal  world.  Mystical  thought  quickens  worship,  and 
the  beauty  of  nature  raises  mystical  thought.  The 
mystical  idea  of  the  Deity  is  only,  in  fact,  the  moral 
idea  of  Him  with  curiosity  superadded. "  Again, 
"  the  manifestation  of  the  Deity  which  takes  place 
in  the  beauty  of  nature  rests  upon  the  ground  and 
the  principle  of  language.  It  is  the  revelation  of 
the  character  of  God  in  the  only  way  a  material  type 
or  similitude  can  be.  But  a  type  is  a  kind  of  distinct 
language — the  language  of  obhque  and  indirect  ex- 
pression, as  contrasted  with  direct.     Imagine,  then, 


3o6  Appendix  C. 

tliis  language,  this  transparent  veil  of  enigma  or  liint, 
carried  into  tlie  exalted  region  of  communication 
between  tlie  Supreme  Being  and  the  creature,  and 
we  have  what  is  in  fact  the  language  of  nature  as  a 
picture.  If  symbolism,  indeed,  has  no  natural  basis, 
if  the  association  of  material  images  with  moral  is 
entirely  ai-bitrary  and  artificial,  then  there  is  no 
language  in  nature  ;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  consensus  and  uniformity  in  the  inter23re- 
tation  of  physical  things,  i.e.,  the  mode  in  which 
our  feelings  are  affected  by  them  ;  if  no  people  have 
ever  existed  to  whom  the  sky  has  not  suggested  one- 
set  of  ideas  ;  if  God  has  always  spoken  with  one 
voice — not  literally  in  the  thunder— but  in  the  im- 
press of  awe  and  solemnity  which  He  has  attached 
to  the  thunder  ;  if  love,  joy,  peace,  hope  have 
attached  to  the  same  features  of  nature  everywhere  ; 
if  there  is  general  agreement  in  these  impresses,  if 
they  proceed  inevitably  from  God's  own  work  and 
the  construction  of  our  own  minds,  then  there  is 
language,  and  language  in  something  more  than  a 
metaphorical  sense,  a  true  indication  and  communi- 
cation according  to  the  medium  employed.  The 
cipher  is  not  unintelligible  ;  it  lets  out  something. 


Appendix   C.  307 

Tlie  great  Spirit,  speaking  by  dumb  representation 
to  other  spirits,  intimates  and  signifies  to  them  some- 
thing about  Himself.  The  Deity,  over  and  above 
our  inward  conscience,  wants  His  external  world  to 
tell  us  He  is  moral.  He  therefore  creates  in  nature 
a  universal  language  about  HimseK. ' ' 

The  writer  guards  against  abuses  of  this  language. 
"Certainly,"  says  he,  "no  person  has  a  right  to 
fasten  his  own  fancies  upon  the  visible  creation  and 
say  that  its  various  features  mean  this  and  that,  re- 
semble this  and  that  in  the  moral  world  ;  but  if  the 
association  is  universal,  if  we  cannot  even  describe 
nature  without  the  help  of  moral  terms — solemn, 
tender,  awful,  and  the  like — it  is  evidence  of  a  nat- 
ural and  real  similitude  of  physical  things  to  moral. '' 

Nature,  then,  has,  at  least,  two  faces,  two  voices, 
two  meanings,  two  functions.  She  is  literal  fact, 
simple  being,  with  certain  properties,  relations,  and 
uses,  and  these  are  for  science  to  investigate  and 
classify.  She  is  also  a  symbol,  a  picture,  a  thing  of 
beauty,  an  oracle  of  moral  feeling,  witnessing  to  a 
Being  who  is  the  supreme  object  of  that  feeling,  and 
these  are  for  the  poet  and  the  prophet  to  interpret  by 
a  process  which  they  cannot  explain  and  by  a  faculty 


3o8  Appendix  C. 

half-hidden  from  themselves.  Nature  herself  is 
mystical  in  her  highest  aspect,  and  mnst  be  mysti- 
cally interpreted  to  the  full  extent  that  this  aspect 
prevails. 

But  if  this  be  true  of  the  lower  revelation  of 
God,  what  right  has  any  one  to  saj  that  a  priori, 
or  a  posteriori,  there  is  no  mystical  element  in  the 
higher  revelation  ?  The  lower  speaks  for  the  moral 
and  spiritual,  though  vaguely  and  by  dumb  signs  ; 
the  higher  speaks  for  the  same  attributes  by  the 
arbitrary  symbols  of  a  written  language  ;  speaks 
positively  and  as  definitely  and  completely  as  its 
imperfect  medium  of  communication  will  permit. 
If  nature' s  language  is  mute,  clouded,  uncertain, 
sometimes  disguised,  and  misleading,  written  lan- 
guage is  weighted  vrith  the  same  drawbacks,  though 
in  a  far  less  degree.  As  a  vehicle  of  divine  thought, 
written  language,  while  it  is  the  best  that  can  be 
had,  is  inevitably  cumbered  with  imperfections.  It 
may  give  us  all  of  the  tb  ought  and  purpose  of  God 
that  we  require  to  know  in  this  stage  of  being  ;  but 
it  can  never  give  us  the  whole.  It  suggests  more 
than  it  can  express,  points  to  depths  and  heights 
beyond  its  own  reach,  never  tells  the  whole  story  of 


\ 


Appeitdix  C.  309 

Him  vvlio  tlirougli  it  finds  the  needed  contact  witli 
the  creature,  lifts  the  mind  to  a  range  of  desire  and 
contemplation  which  itself  cannot  ascend  to,  opens 
out  into  realms  which  itself  cannot  enter.  The 
spirit  is  always  mightier  than  the  letter,  accepts  the 
restraints  of  syllables,  words,  sentences,  and  yet 
vastly  transcends  them,  not  only  making  room  for, 
hut  necessitating  mystical  meanings  and,  by  necessary 
consequence,  mystical  interpretations. 

"Written  language,  whatever  its  origin  and  laws  of 
growth,  is  so  largely  the  product  of  the  human  mind, 
that  it  must  do  what  it  undertakes,  subject  to  the 
conditions  and  limitations  of  its  human  source. 
vVnd  yet  the  Infinite  One  cmploj^sit  as  the  medium 
of  communication  with  man.  Language,  as  a  pow- 
er of  expression,  is  affected  by  three  relations  : 
(1)  by  that  which  connects  it  with  the  phenomena 
which  it  is  so  largely  occupied  in  naming — phenom- 
ena, first  of  the  outer  world  and  then  of  the  inner 
world  of  thought  and  feeling  ;  (2)  by  that  which 
connects  it  with  the  mind,  which  is  all  the  while 
at  work  under  its  own  laws  and  requirements  in 
subliming  and  refining  physical,  material  desig- 
nations  into   the  abstract  terms  of  things,  and  into 


3 1  o  Appendix    C. 

processes  and  powers  included  in  the  domain  of  tlie 
I'ational  and  moral  and  spiritual  ;  (3)  by  its  rela- 
tion to  the  Divine  Intelligence  who  uses  it  to  com- 
municate with  ourselves.  Scripture  language  is 
affected  by  these  relations  to  the  full  extent  that 
it  is  the  language  of  a  revelation  of  the  unseen,  the 
eternal,  and  the  infinite. 

Again,  not  only  is  language  itself  largely  com- 
posed of  signs  and  symbols,  but  God  in  reveal- 
ing Himself  has  seen  fit  greatly  to  enlarge  its 
capacity  for  expression  by  using  it  to  describe  char- 
acters, scenes,  pictures,  events,  aspects,  and  relations 
of  human  life  selected  by  His  inspired  prophets,  if 
not  immediatel}"  by  Himself,  to  shadow  forth  or 
openly  exhibit  the  hidden  things  of  His  own 
spiritual  kingdom.  So  He  crowds  into  earlier  dis- 
pensations, types,  and  parables,  the  reality  and 
fulfilment  of  which  wait  for  a  later  one.  Shadows 
go  before  the  substance,  the  prophetic  pictures  be- 
fore the  things  pictured.  Messianic  adumbrations 
before  the  Messiah,  the  ritual  of  the  Law  before  the 
ritual  of  the  Gospel.  On  these  grounds,  grounds 
turning  on  the  reason  and  fitness  of  things,  it  is  im- 
possible to  exclude  mystical  renderings,  and, contrary 


Appendix  C.  311 

to  facts,  to  affirm,  that  Scripture  lias  only  one  se7ise, 
and  that  the  obvious  one,  precisely  as  thouo-h  it 
were  composed  under  the  same  limitations  and  for 
the  same  purpose  as  any  work  of  a  human  author. 

But  from  a  view  of  the  case  suggested  by  our  own 
reasonings,  the  force  and  relevancy  of  which  may 
be  disputed,  I  turn  to  the  facts  involved  in  the 
essential  nature  of  the  Scripture.  Within  certain 
limits  it  may  be  handled  as  any  other  book  may  be. 
It  is  a  book  while  it  is  a  revelation.  It  employs 
human  language.  That  language  has  its  syntax,  etc. 
It  stretches  over  on  all  sides  into  history,  is  colored 
by  events,  and  manners,  and  institutions  of  contem- 
poraneous empires  and  civilization,  impinges  on, 
nay  draws  into  itself,  many  results  and  peculiarities 
of  collateral  hteratares.  In  these  and  kindred  ways 
it  is  like  any  great  product  of  the  human  mind,  and 
may  be  so  treated.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has 
characteristics  of  its  own  which  distinguish  it  above, 
and  separate  it  from,  all  other  books  ;  and  because  it 
has  them,  it  cannot  lawfully  or  properly  be  criti- 
cised, or  interpreted  by  the  same  canons  as  any  other 
book.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  name  a  very 
few  out  of  many  of  these  s^d  genejns  peculiarities. 


312  Appendix  C. 

(1)  The  Bible  is  tlie  work  of  some  forty  different 
authors,  all  of  whom  claimed  to  speak,  or  at  least  an 
inspired  apostle  declares  that  they  did  speak,  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  did  so  in 
such  a  sense  as  to  justify  the  aflSrmation  that  all 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God.  Their 
writings  cover  a  stretch  of  fifteen  centuries,  and  for 
fifteen  centuries  past,  they  have  been  collected  into 
one  volume,  and  have  been  regarded,  durino;  nearly 
all  that  time,  as  the  Booh  by  the  Churcli  Universal. 

(2)  It  consists  of  two  Testaments,  the  Old  and 
the  ISTew.  One  dominating  purpose  pervades  both. 
They  are  so  bound  together  that  it  is  impossible  to 
separate  them  without  leaving  each  an  inexplicable 
enigma.  The  one  is  the  necessary  key  to  the  other  ; 
the  meaning  of  both  is  the  same  ;  foreshadowed  in 
the  Old,  revealed  in  the  New.  ''  The  Law  is  the 
Gospel  foretold  ;  the  Gospel  is  the  Law  fulfilled." 

(3)  Both  Testaments  profess  to  record  the  workPs 
life  from  a  heavenly  standpoint.  Both  go  upon  the 
presumption  tliat  they  knew  what  God  did  and  pur- 
posed to  do  from  the  beginning,  how  He  looks  upon 
the  characters,  the  transactions,  the  events  of  tliis 
earth,  and  how  the  unseen  world  is  related  to  this 


Appendix  C.  313 

world.  They  treat  tins  world  as  God's  world,  in  a 
way  which  distinguishes  them  as  essentially/  unlike 
all  other  hooks,  "  except  such,"  as  Bishop  Butler 
remarks,  "as  are  copied  from  them." 

(4)  Above  all  we  have  in  the  ISTew  Testament 
exhibited,  as  matter  of  fact,  the  Word  made  flesh, 
God  incarnate. 

(5)  It  is  implied  or  expressed  all  through  this 
Book  that  God,  not  man,-  is  its  author. 

It  is,  then,  radically  unlike  any  other  book,  and, 
a  priori,  ought  to  be  interpreted  by  canons  of  crit- 
icism that  apply  to  itself  alone.  From  its  constitu- 
tion, its  purpose,  its  general  character,  it  is,  more- 
over, only  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  contains  a 
hidden  or  mystical,  as  well  as  a  literal  meaning. 
All  the  probabilities  make  strongly  against  ' '  the 
one  sense  only' '  theory. 

Such,  I  say,  are  the  probabilities.  But  these 
probabilities  are  advanced  to  certainty — to  a  mat- 
ter of  fact — when  we  come  to  see  how  our  Lord  and 
His  apostles  interpreted  Scripture.  It  is  beyond 
all  possible  dispute  that  their  method  of  handling 
the  Old  Testament  was  as  far  removed  as  well  could 
be  from  the  literal,   one-sense  notion.      It  is  the 


314  Appendix  C. 

favorite  saying  of  the  one-sense  school  that  "  only 
out  of  the  Scriptures  can  you  interpret  the  Scrip- 
tures." It  is,  therefore,  of  great  moment  to  ascer- 
tain how  the  Scriptures  interpreted  themselves 
under  the  handhng  of  Christ  and  His  apostles. 
Kow,  if  one  thing  be  plainer  than  another  in  this 
liandling,  it  is  that  they  interpreted  the  Bible  as  no 
other  book  can  be.  They  found  meanings  that 
were  not  simple  and  obvious  to  the  ordinary  reader. 
They  confounded  the  Jews,  time  and  again,  by 
finding  under  the  letter  what  the  Jews  had  never 
dreamed  of.  The  whole  Messianic  argument  was 
an  utter  surprise  to  thera.  God's  purposes  were 
brought  out  in  absolutely  new  asjjects.  The  !aw 
put  on  another  front,  prophecies  familiar  to  the 
Jews  as  their  alphabet  were  found  to  have  de  pths 
of  meaning — one  lying  upon  another — into  which 
their  traditional  surface  study  had  never  carried 
them.  The  signs  and  symbols,  the  characters  and 
events  of  hundreds  of  years  gone  before  were  trans- 
lated into  tlie  startling  events  of  the  hour.  The 
veil  of  tlie  old  letter  was  rent  asunder,  and,  for  the 
ilrst  time,  human  eyes  looked  into  the  invisible  and 
eternal    world,      The   spiritual   reality    burst    out 


Appendix  C.  315 

tlirougli  the  external  wrappage  of  language  like  a 
long-pent-up  flood.  Tlie  hidden  meaning  displaced 
and  overlaid  tlie  obvious,  one-sense  meaning,  as  tlie 
plant  displaces  and  overlays  the  cerements  of  the 
dead  germ  out  of  which  it  sprang.  Never  was 
there  such  an  exhibition  of  the  mystical  method  of 
interpretation  as  wlien.,  "  beginning  at  Moses  and  all 
the  prophets.  He  [Christ]  expounded  to  them  in  all 
the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  Himself." 
How  the  apostles  imitated  His  example,  in  this,  it 
were  needless  to  tell  in  detail.  In  fact,  there  is  no 
more  marked,  constantly-recurring  feature  of  the 
!N^ew  Testament  than  the  use  of  this  method.  To 
escape  its  consequences,  to  escape  the  thing  itself, 
regarded  in  the  light  of  an  authority,  such  advo- 
cates of  the  one-meaning  hypothesis  as  Professor 
Jowett  have  not  hesitated  to  set  it  aside  completely 
as  a  mere  '■'' after -tliought  accomtnodation''''  of  the 
Old  to  tlie  New.  It  was  not,  tlien,  mystical  inter- 
pretation at  all,  though  coming  from  the  lips  of  our 
Lord  Himself,  but  "  an  accommodation  (!)  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  text  to  the  thoughts 
of  other  times."  And  as  if  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
the  wide,   radically  destructive  sweep  of  the  one- 


3i6  Appendix  C. 

ff^n.S6  sclienic  and  of  this  notion  of  "accommoda- 
tion," this  writer  (and  witli  regard  to  the  Ked 
Sea  question,  the  Princeton  reviewer  agrees  with 
him)  says,  ' '  If  we  attribute  to  tlie  details  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual  a  reference  to  tlie  New  Testament,  or 
suppose  the  passage  of  the  Ked  Sea  to  be  regarded 
not  merely  as  a  figure  of  baptism,  but  as  a  pre-or- 
dained type,  the  principle  is  conceded."  "  A  little 
more  or  a  little  less  of  the  method  does  not  make 
the  difference. ' ' 

But  if  the  mystical  method  was,  in  fact,  the 
method  of  our  Lord  and  His  apostles,  what  becomes 
of  the  statement  of  Professor  Jowett,  that  "  the 
mystical  interpretation  of  Scripture  originated  in 
the  Alexandrian  age  ;"  or  that  of  the  other  writer 
referred  to,  that  "the  mystical  principle  was  es- 
tablished when  there  was  but  little  critical  knowledge 
of  history  or  language  ;"  and  that  "  we  can  never 
understand  the  early  Fathers  unless  we  .read  the 
works  of  Philo,  the  earlier  master  of  symbolic 
wisdom."  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  Philo  had  an  in- 
fluence, even  a  marked  one,  but  the  method  came 
from  another  and  greater  Master. 

Now  all  this  may  be  regarded  as  prefatory  to  the 


Appendix  C.  317 

inquiry  that  is  of  so  much  moment  to  a  riglit  iinclei'- 
standing  of  the  subject,  viz.,  how  and  what  did  the 
early  Fathers  learn  from  these  inspired  expounders 
of  Holy  Writ.  They  invented  nothing  essential  to 
the  method  of  interpretation  which  they  followed. 
They  walked  in  a  path  already  marked  out,  and 
worked  out  results  from  premises  already  established. 
Their  labors  did  not  stand  apart  from  what  had  gone 
before,  but  were  cast  in  a  mould  that  had  been 
shaped  by  the  highest  possible  authority.  Mr.  Bur- 
gon  (now  Dean  of  Chichester)  has  treated  this  point 
with  great  force  and  clearness,  and  I  cannot  do  bet- 
ter than  to  quote  his  language  : 

"  There  is  a  family  resemblance  in  the  method  of 
all  early  expositions  of  Holy  Scripture  which  vindi- 
cates for  them,  however  remotely,  a  common  ori- 
gin, and  which  can  be  satisfactorily  explained  only 
by  sujDposing  that  the  remote  type  of  all  was  the 
oral  teaching  of  the  Apostles  themselves.  In 
truth,  is  it  credible  that  the  early  Christians  would 
have  been  so  forgetful  of  the  discourse  of  the  men 
who  had  seen  the  Lord,  that  no  trace  of  it — no  tra- 
dition of  so  much  as  the  manner  of  it — should  have 
lingered  on  for  a  hundred  years  after  the  death  of 


3i8  Appendix  C. 

the  last  of  the  Apostles — down  to  the  time  when 
Origen,  for  example,  was  a  young  man  ?  It  cannot 
possibly  be. 

"  '•  The  things  which  thou  hast  heard  of  among 
many  witnesses,'  writes  the  great  Apostle  to  his 
son  Timothy,  '  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful 
men  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also.'  Pro- 
vision is  thus  made  by  the  aged  saint,  in  the  last  of 
his  epistles,  for  the  transmission  of  his  inspired 
teaching  to  a  second  and  a  third  generation.  Kow, 
the  words  just  quoted  were  written  about  the  year 
65,  at  which  time  Timothy  was  a  young  man.  Un- 
less we  suppose  that  Almighty  God  curtailed  the 
lives  of  the  chief  depositaries  of  His  "Word,  Tim- 
othy will  have  lived  on  till  a.d.  100  ;  so  that 
'  faithful  men, '  who  died  in  the  middle  of  the 
next  century  might  have  been  trained  and  taught 
by  him  for  many  years.  It  follows  that  the  faithful 
men  last  spoken  of  will  have  been  '  able  to  teach 
others  also,'  whose  writings  (if  they  wrote  at  all) 
would  range  from  a.d.  190  to  a.d.  210.  Now,  just 
such  a  writer  is  Hippolytus — ^who  is  known  to  have 
been  taught  by  that  '  faithful  man, '  Irenaeus,  to 
whom,  as  it  happens,  the  deposit  was  '  committed  ' 


Appendix   C.  319 

by  Polycarp,  who  stood  to  St.  John  in  the  self -same 
relation  as  Timothy  to  St.  Paul. 

' '  Our  Saviour  is  repeatedly  declared  to  have  in- 
terpreted the  Old  Testament  to  His  disciples  ;  for  in- 
stance, to  the  two  going  to  Emmaus.  Moreover, 
before  He  left  the  world,  He  solemnly  promised 
His  Apostles  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father 
should  send  in  His  name,  '  should  teach  them  all 
things,  and  bring  to  their  remembrance  all  things 
which  He  had  spoken  to  them. '  Shall  we  believe 
that  the  treasury  of  Di^dne  Inspiration  thus  opened 
by  Christ  Himself  was  straightway  closed  up  by 
its  human  guardians,  and  at  once  forgotten  ?  The 
great  fact  to  be  borne  in  mind  (and  it  is  the  great 
fact  which  nothing  can  ever  set  aside  or  weaken)  is, 
that  for  the  tirst  century  at  least  of  our  era,  there 
existed  within  the  Christian  Church  the  gift  of 
prophecy  /  that  is  of  Inspired  Interpretation.  The 
minds  of  the  Apostles  Christ  Himself  '  opened  to 
understand  the  Scriptiiref<.''  Can  it  be  any  matter 
of  surprise  that  men  so  enlightened,  when  they  had 
been  miraculously  endowed  with  the  gift  of  tongues, 
and  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  ancient  civilized 
world,  should  have  disseminated  the  same  princi- 


320  Appendix  C. 

pies  of  Catholic  interpretation,  as  well  as  the  same 
elements  of  saving  ti'utli  ?  When  this  miraculous 
gift  ceased,  its  results  did  not  also  come  to  an  end. 
By  what  possible  logic  can  the  teaching  of  the  early 
Church  be  severed  from  its  source  ?  It  cannot  be 
supposed  for  a  moment  that  such  a  severance  ever 
took  place.  The  teaching  of  the  Apostolic  age  was 
the  immediate  parent  of  the  teaching  of  the  earliest 
of  the  Fathers — in  whose  schools  it  is  a  matter  of 
history  that  those  Patristic  writers  with  whom  we 
are  most  familiar,  studied  and  became  famous,  Ac. 
cordingly,  we  discover  a  method  of  interpreting 
Holy  Scri23ture  strictly  resembling  tJiat  employed 
hy  our  Saviour  and  His  apostles,  in  all  the  eay'liest 
Patristic  writings.  As  documents  increase  the  evi- 
dence is  multiplied,  a»d  at  the  end  of  two  or  three 
centuries  after  the  death  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist, 
voices  are  heard  from  Jerasalem  and  other  parts  of 
Palestine  ;  from  Antioch  and  from  other  parts  of 
Syria  ;  from  the  eastern  and  western  extremities 
of  North  Africa  ;  from  many  regions  of  Asia  Mi- 
nor ;  from  Constantinople,  and  from  Greece  ; 
from  Rome,  from  Milan,  and  from  other  parts  of 
Italy  ;  from  Cyprus  and  from  Gaul — all  singing  in 


Appendix   C.  321 

unison,  all  singing  the  same  heavenly  song  !  In 
what  way  but  one  is  so  extraordinary  a  phenome- 
non to  be  accounted  for  ?  Are  we  to  believe  that 
there  was  a  general  conspiracy  of  the  East  and  the 
"West,  the  North  and  the  South,  to  interpret  Holy 
Scripture  in  a  certain  way  ;  and  that  way  the 
wrong  way  ?"* 

The  mystical  canon  of  interpretation  has  been 
disparaged  and  held  up  to  ridicule,  because  of  the 
extremes  to  which  it  has  been  pushed  and  of  the 
abuses  to  which  it  is  liable.  Without  denying 
these  extremes  and  abuses,  nay,  rather  admitting 
all  that  can  be  said  about  them,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  if  the  mystical  canon  is  to  be  set  aside 
on  this  ground,  the  literal,  '' one- sense  "  canon 
must  share  the  same  fate  and  on  the  same  ground. 
For  not  much  learning  or  research  is  needed  to  put 
in  array  the  barren  and  shallow  renderings  of  the 
sacred  text  by  the  latter.  The  masters  of  the  Pa- 
tristic method  may  have  crowded  too  many  mean- 
ings in  this  and  that  passage  of  God's  Word — may 
have  run  out  into  many  indefensible  fancies  of  al- 
legory and  parallelism  ;  but  the  masters  of  the  new 
*  Burgon  on  Inspiration. 


32  2  Appendix  C. 

method  have  sinned  quite  as  grievously,  only  in 
the  opposite  direction.  For  example,  it  has  al- 
ways been  thought  that  our  Lord's  words  to  Nico- 
demus  about  the  new  birth  had  a  good  deal  to  do 
with  a  very  deej)  view  of  regeneration  by  baptism 
and  involved  a  direct  reference  to  that  unspeakable 
mystery  of  the  Holy  Sjiirit.  But  it  seems,  under 
the  new  light  thrown  upon  those  words,  that  this 
was  all  a  mistake  and  that  our  Lord  meant  when 
He  used  them  to  do  no  more  than  declare  the  in- 
coming of  a  kingdom  of  more  spiritual  gifts  than 
John  taught  in  baptism  by  water. 

Again,  it  has  generally  been  believed  by  the  best 
scholars  of  the  old  sort  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans (8  :  28-30)  does  refer  to  certain  Divine  de- 
crees or  predetermined  plans  of  God  respecting  the 
calling  and  saving  of  mankind,  however  they  may 
be  interpreted,  whether  by  Calvin,  or  Arminius,  or 
by  anybody  else. "     But  it  now  appears,  according  to 

*  There  has  never  been  any  question  but  that  the  Scriptures 
— eminently  this  passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — teach 
tis  concerning  the  election  and  predestination  of  God.  All 
Christians  accept  the  doctrine  of  election,  and  the  only  con- 
tention has  been  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  doctrine. 

Calvin  gave   it   one    meaning,  Araiinius   another,  Locke 


Appendix   C.  323 

tlie  new  canon  of  criticism,  that  this,  too,  was  all  a 
mistake,  and  all  the  grave,  profound  thinking  on 
this  j)assage  from  Augustine  down  is  to  be  con- 
signed, as  simply  "  our  metaphysics,"  to  the  com- 
mon warehouse  of  defunct  and  useless  speculation. 

Again,  considerable  importance  has  always  been 
attached  to  our  Lord's  words  to  Peter  about  "  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven."  But  it  now 
appears  that  Dean  Stanley,  an  enterprising  student 

another,  Faber  another,  Richard  Baxter  still  another. 
But  the  fact  that  God  does  elect  and  predestinate  none 
have  doubted.  It  matters  not  how  these  theories  have  suc- 
cessively collided  with  or,  for  the  time  being,  displaced  each 
other  ;  no  recent  criticism  of  the  sacred  text  has  discovered 
anything  that  prevents,  or  renders  improbable,  the  revival  of 
any  one  of  these  views  of  election,  at  dny  time.  There  are 
even  now  some  symptoms  of  a  return  to  the  Calvinistic  i.iea — 
a  return  likely  to  be  more  or  less  stimulated  by  the  extrava- 
gant assertion  of  the  doctrine  of  individualism  now  so  preva- 
lent— a  doctrine  which  threatens  to  build  all  modern  life  on  the 
hypothesis  that  man  is  self -evolving,  self-governing,  self-suf- 
ficient— that  there  is  no  rightful  challenge  to  his  liberty  so 
long  as  the  exercise  of  it  does  not  infringe  upon  the  peace  and 
order  of  society  ;  and  this,  for  the  reason  (given  by  at  least  one 
popular  school  of  philosophy),  that,  if  there  be  a  God,  his 
freedom  expresses  and  completes  itself  (in  the  only  form  tliat 
■we  can  know  it),  in  and  through  the  free  will  of  humanity. 
The  pendulum  is  sure  to  swing  back  sooner  or  later. 


324  Appendix  C. 

of  the  new  school,  has  lately  discovered  that  "  this 
classic  text  for  absolution  "  is  no  more  than  the 
mistaken  phrase  of  the  Rabbis,  who  meant  bj 
"  binding  and  loosing  "  the  action  of  their  courts 
of  law.  A  vast  deal  more  of  the  same  sort  of  evis- 
cerating criticism  might  easily  be  cited  ;  but  ex 
tiiio  disce  omnia. 

But  granting,  what  is  a  fact,  that  both  the  meth- 
ods are  open  to  abuse,  it  is  of  moment  to  inquire 
what  safeguards  and  checks  (if  any)  against  perver- 
sions and  extremes  each  provides.  The  new  method 
felicitates  itself  on  its  complete  emancipation  from 
what  it  calls  "  the  after-thoughts  of  theology,"  i.e.^ 
the  restraints  of  Christian  dogma,  wherever  found 
and  however  formulated.  ' '  The  simplest  laws  of 
knowledge  are  always  the  latest."  A  decent  re- 
spect must  be  paid  to  what  has,  in  thoughtful  ages, 
passed  for  learning  ;  but  this  must  not  be  allowed 
to  dictate  conclusions  to  the  riper  learning  of  to- 
day, whose  good  fortune  it  is  to  have  eliminated  by 
a  progressive  evolution  the  crudities  of  bygone 
schools.  Scripture  is  safely  and  truly  interpreted 
only  when  it  interprets  itself,  the  only  outside  fac- 
tor required  being  the   private  judgment   of   the 


Appendix   C.  325 

critic,  aided  by  tlie  best  implements  of  interpreta- 
tion which  the  latest  learning  can  supply.  Little 
account  is  made  of  the  fact  that  no  student,  no 
critic,  or  inter23reter  can  resolve  himself  into  a  col- 
orless medium,  or  divest  himself  of  a  bias  one  way 
or  the  other.  No  scholar  or  thinker  stands  apart 
from  the  intellectual  or  religious  life  circling  around 
him.  Some  theory  of  truth, some  scheme  of  specu- 
lation, some  sort  of  philosophy,  some  phase  of  re- 
ligion is  always  behind  him,  looking  through  his 
eyes,  breathing  through  his  breath,  speaking 
through  his  voice.  And  so  it  not  seldom  haj^pens 
that  the  most  self-centred  critic  in  profession  is  the 
least  so  in  reality.  So  true  is  this,  that  it  is  only 
necessaiy  that  a  historical  critic  j^ut  in  a  special 
claim  to  independence,  to  create  suspicion  of  his 
candor.  The  checks  and  safeguards,  then,  pro- 
vided for  itself  by  the  new  method  are  practically 
nothing  more  than  individul  knowledge  permeated 
and  swayed  by  this  or  that  set  of  tendencies,  or 
phases  of  the  age.  But  what,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  those  of  the  old  method — call  it  the  traditional, 
the  patristic,  the  mystical,  or  what  not,  as  you 
please  ?     It  may  not  be  so  well  up  in  exact  learn- 


326  Appendix   C. 

ing,  or  in  recent  discoveries  in  pliilology,  etlmol- 
ogy,  arcliseology,  etc. ,  it  niaj  not  have  the  highest 
measure  of  common- sense,  it  may  have  no  special 
genius  ,f  or  taking  sentences  apart  and  putting  them 
together  again,  like  a  Chinese  puzzle,  or  for  punc- 
turing as  with  a  needle  the  nerve  tissues  of  indi- 
vidual M'ords  ;  it  may  he  lacking  in  many  desirable 
helps  and  chargeable  with  many  damaging  deficien- 
cies. But  it  does  one  thing,  erects  one  safeguard, 
imposes  one  restraint  worth  more  than  all  others. 
There  is  one  law,  one  authority  that  it  obeys,  as  a 
fundamental  duty,  and  that  is  the  law,  the  authority, 
of  the  Analogia  Fidei.  And  what  is  this  ?  Let  me 
trace,  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  its  ground,  its  ori- 
gin, how  it  took  shape,  how  it  expresses  itself,  and 
the  scope  of  its  operation,  in  the  sphere  of  Biblical 
interjD rotation.  It  is  more  than  a  vaguely  conceived, 
unshapen  basis  of  doctrine  laid  in  the  deep  founda- 
tions of  Scripture— a  basis  that  with  spongy  flexi- 
bility offers  itself  as  a  convenient  corner  stone  on 
which  any  and  all  religious  thinkers  may  build. 
Tlie  successive  schools  of  controversial  divinity, 
during  the  last  fourteen  hundred  years,  have  aimed 
to  establish  this  Analogy  of  the  Faith,  or  to  correct 


Appendix   C.  327 

violations  of  it,  or  to  reconcile  with  it  tlieir  re- 
spective peculiarities.  It  lias  always  been  -under- 
stood to  forbid  tlie  interpretation  of  Scripture  ac- 
cording to  men's  private  notions,  also  the  deduction 
of  doctrine  from  one  or  two  texts  or  chapters  taken 
singly  and  by  themselves  ;  and  to  imply  the  gen- 
eral symmetry  and  harmony  of  the  whole  body  of 
Christian  doctrine,  and  the  relation  or  proportion  of 
each  special  doctrine  preached,  or  text  expounded, 
to  that  entire  body  of  doctrine.  It  started  with  a 
body  of  truth  possessed  of  the  attributes  of  unity, 
nniversahty,  and  jDerpetuity,  and  rests  upon  the 
fact  that  the  Church  has  never  been  without  such 
a  body  of  truth  whose  parts  were  duly  propor- 
tioned to  each  other  and  to  the  whole.  * 

Historically,  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  and  ac- 
count for  the  Ancdogia  Fidel.  "  The  origin  and 
first  establishment  of  Christianity  were  by  the 
preaching  of  living  men,  who  said  they  were  com- 
missioned to  proclaim  it.  There  is  a  vague  and 
unreasoning  notion  that  Christianity  was  taken 
from  the  New  Testament.  The  notion  is  historically 
untnie.  Christianity  was  widely  extended  through 
*  Eomans  12  :  C  ;  2  Timothy  1  :  13  ;  2  Timothy  2  : 2. 


328  Appendix   C. 

the  civilized  world  before  the  New  Testament  was 
written  ;  and  its  several  books  were  successively 
addressed  to  various  bodies  of  Christian  believers  ; 
to  bodies,  that  is,  who  already  possessed  the  faith 
of  Christ  in  its  integrity.  "When,  indeed,  God 
ceased  to  inspire  persons  to  write  these  books,  and 
when  they  were  all  collected  together  into  what  we 
call  the  ISTew  Testament,  the  existing  faith  of  the 
Church,  derived  from  oral  teaching,  was  tested  by 
comparison  with  this  inspired  record.  And  it 
henceforth  became  the  standing  law  of  the  Church 
that  nothing  should  be  received  as  necessary  to  sal- 
vation which  could  not  stand  that  test.  But  still, 
though  thus  tested  (every  article  being  proved  by 
the  New  Testament),  Christianity  is  not  taken 
from  it,  for  it  existed  hefore  it. 

"  What  then  was  the  Christianity  which  was  thus 
established  ?  Have  we  any  record  of  it  as  it  ex- 
isted before  the  New  Testament  became  the  sole 
authoritative  standard  ?  1  answer,  "We  have. 
The  creeds  of  the  Christian  Church  are  the  record 
of  it.  That  is  precisely  what  they  purport  to  be  ; 
not  documents  taken  from  the  New  Testament, 
V)nt  documents  transmitting  to  us  the  faith  as  it  was 


Appendix   C.  329 

held  from  the  beginning  ;  the  faith  as  it  was 
preached  by  inspired  men,  before  the  inspired  men 
put  forth  any  writings  ;  the  faith  once  for  all  de- 
livered to  the  saints.  xVccordingly  you  will  find 
that  onr  Church,  in  her  Eighth  Article,  does  not 
ground  her  affirmation  that  the  creeds  ought  to  be 
'  thoroughly  received  and  believed  '  on  the  fact  that 
they  were  takeii  out  of  the  New  Testament  (which 
they  were  not),  but  on  the  fact  that  they  may  he 
proved  by  most  certain  warrants  of  Holy  Scripture. 
The  fall  of  man,  original  sin,  the  atonement,  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  the  Trinity,  all  have  their  place 
in  the  faith  held  from  the  beginning.  They  are 
imbedded  in  the  creeds,  and  in  that  general  scheme 
of  doctrine  which  circles  round  the  creeds  and  is 
involved  in  them."* 

All  essential  truths,  then,  were,  as  matter  of 
history,  gathered  up  into  "  a  form  of  sound 
words,"  and  were  "the  things  that  [as  St.  Paul 
wrote  to  Timothy]  thou  hast  heard  of  me  among 
many  witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful 
men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also."     If 

*  From  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  F.  B.  Woodward.  1861  (Riv- 
ingtons.) 


T,T,o  Appendix   C. 

thej  were  tlms  gathered  and  arranged  by  inspired 
wisdom,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  ad- 
justed to  each  other  in  their  true  proportion  and 
with  a  view  to  the  unity  and  harmony  of  all  the 
parts  of  the  body  of  sound  doctrine.  JSfothing  was 
in  excess,  nothing  in  defect,  nothing  essential  to 
salvation  left  out,  nothing  needful  to  express  the 
mind  of  Scripture,  when  Scripture  should  appear 
in  its  completed  form,  omitted.  Now  it  is  only 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  body  of  truth  thus 
f  I'amed  to  exhibit  the  analogy  or  proportion  of  the  • 
faith  would  be  of  the  greatest  service,  in  all  ages, 
in  the  interpretation  of  God's  written  Word.  It 
was  actually  so  regarded  and  used  by  all  branches 
of  the  Patristic  school,  and  all  of  this  school  who 
applied  it  with  requisite  skill  and  discretion  found 
in  it  not  only  very  valuable  and  real  aid,  but  also  a 
restraint  and  safeguard  which,  if  they  did  not  pre- 
vent their  running  into  some  fanciful  renderings 
of  the  Scripture,  did  prevent  their  lapse  into  teach- 
ings that  contradicted  the  fundamentals  of  the  faith. 
The  method  of  this  school  was  from  the  start  de- 
ductive, not  inductive.  It  received  all  the  princi- 
ples of  saving  truth  as  already  established,  and  made 


Appendix  C.  331 

it  its  chief  business  to  run  them  oiit  into  particu- 
lars, to  trace  them  through  the  Scripture,  and  to 
prove  them  thereby.  In  contrast  with  this,  the 
modern  method  accounts  it  its  chief  distinction  to 
proceed  inductively,  i.e.,  to  inquire  into  and  mar- 
shal the  particulars  of  God's  Word  first,  then  to 
generalize  them,  and  then  to  formulate  them  into 
principles  ;  each  inquirer  or  critic  doing  the  work 
independently,  and  according  to  tests  and  standards 
approved  by  his  own  individual  judgment. 

Though  the  fact  may  not  weigh  much  with  some, 
it  should  be  understood  that  this  method  is  opposed 
to  the  rule  adopted  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation, 
which  appealed  to  the  Scriptures  as  interpreted  by 
the  Fathers  of  the  first  four  centuries — a  rule  which 
has  determined  ever  since  not  only  the  tone  and 
spirit,  but  the  formal  teaching  of  the  most  learned 
and  best  accredited  commentators  in  the  Church  of 
England.  And  to  go  still  further  back,  it  is  op- 
posed to  the  uniform  consensus  of  the  Church  Uni- 
versal, to  the  practice  of  Patristic  antiquity,  to  the 
witness  and  decision  of  the  early  councils — i.e., 
the  primitive  creeds — to  the  constant  use  of  the 
Apostles,  and  finally,  to  the  method  of  our  Lord 


332  Appendix   C. 

Himself.  Very  solid,  indeed  must  be  the  gromids, 
very  urgent  the  needs,  which  would  justify  us  in 
turning  our  backs  upon  such  an  array  of  adverse 
authorities,  in  order  to  embrace  the  doubtful  ad- 
vantages of  this  literal,  "one-sense,"  inductive, 
private-judgment  method  of  Biblical  interpretation. 
The  ^analogy  of  faith  and  the  method  based  upon 
and  regulated  by  it  cannot  be  lightly  put  aside  by 
the  new  learning.  No  possible  increase  of  knowl- 
edge, however  drawn  from  the  various  fields  of  in- 
vestigation, can  displace  a  principle  which,  from  the 
beginning,  has  been  immovably  rooted  in  the  mind 
and  practice  of  the  Church  of  God. 

The  new  school  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  old  one  has  been  lacking  in  careful  and  accurate 
learning,  as  also  in  enterprising  inquiry  and  minute, 
painstaking,  verbal  criticism.  It  announces  itself, 
with  an  assured  confidence,  as  having  already  done 
much  to  supply  this  deficiency,  and  as  promising  to 
do  a  vast  deal  more  in  this  direction.  If  one  cred- 
ited the  half  that  is  claimed  in  this  way,  he  would 
be  forced  to  admit  that  Hermeneutical  studies  had 
been  greatly  neglected  in  the  most  scholarly  and 
thoughtful  ages  of  the  Church,  and  that  somehow 


Appendix   C.  333 

the  best  Cliristian  learning  liad  spent  itself  in  a  sort 
of  treadmill  life,  showing  constant  motion,  but  no 
advance.  Xow,  in  themselves  considered,  there  is 
no  reason  why  the  new  method  should  be  more 
learned,  minute,  accurate,  and  exhaustive  in  its 
scholarshii?,  or  in  its  actual  handling  of  the  sacred 
text,  than  the  old.  The  process  of  generahzingfrom 
particulars  or  of  inductive  inquiry  involves  no  more 
care,  supplies  no  sharper  incentives  to  elaborate  and 
accurate  learning,  than  the  opposite  process  of 
tracing  out  into,  and  verifying  by  particulars,  cer- 
tain fundamental  truths  accepted,  at  the  very  start, 
on  competent  authority. 

"What  we  might  expect,  a  priori^  is  true  in  fact. 
The  science  of  Biblical  interpretation  is  not  the 
creature  of  this  or  of  the  last  century,  or  of  both. 
It  has  been  professed,  cultivated,  and  practised  in 
every  country  of  Christendom  and  in  every  age  of 
the  Church,  and  has  always  been  esteemed  one  of 
the  noblest  and  best  understood.  It  has  had  a  long 
line  of  illustrious  masters,  who  in  power  of  intellect 
and  vastness  of  attainment,  as  well  as  in  piety  and 
devotion,  compare,  to  say  the  least,  very  favorably 
with  those  of  to-day,  of  whatever  school.     If  there 


334  Appe7tdix   C. 

are  giants  now  in  tins  field,  their  stature  certainly  is 
not  magnified  when  put  alongside  such  men  as  Hilary 
of  Poictiers,  Basil,  and  the  two  Gregories,  Theodo- 
ret,  Epiphanius,  Ambrose,  John  Chrysostom,  Je- 
rome, Augustine,  Athanasius,  and  Cyril  of  Alex- 
andria, and  so  on  down  (not  to  name  other  strong 
links  in  the  mighty  chain)  to  the  time  of  Andrewes, 
and  Bull,  and  Pearson,  and  Mill.  And,  to-day,  what 
superiority,  in  any  of  the  requirements  for  scholarly 
and  exhausti'/e  sacred  criticism,  have  Jowett  and 
Alford  over  Wordsworth  and  Pnsey  ? 

I  am  not  unaware  either  of  the  claims,  or  the 
achievements  of  the  various  schools  of  interpretation 
which  it  is  part  of  the  pride  and  glory  of  Germany 
to  have  produced  in  the  century  past.  I  would 
speak  of  both  only  in  terms  of  profound  respect  and 
even  of  grateful  homage.  Their  patience  and 
thoroughness,  and  often  the  novelty  of  their 
inventions  and  the  genius  exhibited  in  vindi- 
cating their  plausibility,  if  not  their  truth,  have 
justly  excited  the  admiration  of  Christian  scholars 
of  every  land.  And  yet  now  that  the  time  has 
come  for  sifting  the  chaff  from  the  wheat,  the 
actual    harvest   to    be     stored    away  in  the  grana- 


Appendix  C.  335 

ries  of  tlie  Church  for  the  future  feeding  of  the 
people  of  God  does  not  seem  to  be  as  prom- 
ising as  many  once  believed  it  would  be.  The 
scaffolding  is  being  taken  down  little  by  little  ;  the 
noise  of  the  new  tools  employed  is  dying  away  on 
the  ear  ;  and,  as  the  building  comes  out  more  and 
more  upon  the  eye,  we  begin  to  see  that  it  is 
neither  so  solid  in  its  masonry  nor  so  spacious  in  its 
dimensions,  as  was  anticipated.  In  fact,  a  careful 
scrutiny  of  results  shows  that  nothing  has  been 
added  to  our  saving  knowledge,  that  no  essential  of 
the  faith  has  been  displaced  or  seriously  modified, 
that  the  great  Christian  Tradition  of  God's  truth 
leaves  the  century  substantially  as  it  entered  it, 
that  the  constituent  elements  and  average  condi- 
tions of  personal  religion  are  undisturbed,  and  the 
original  Institutions  and  Offices  of  the  Church  still 
abide  in  their  integrity  and  do  the  work  as  of  old, 
whereunto  they  were  appointed.  What  the  Chris- 
tian world  will  remember  longest,  next  to  the 
prodigious  learning  expended,  will  be  certain  for- 
midable attacks  upon  the  inspiration,  the  authen- 
ticity, and  genuineness  of  many  books  of  the  Canoni- 
cal Scriptures  ;    and  certain  self-devouring,   or  mu- 


2,'^^  Appendix   C. 

tnally  annihilating  tlieories  toucliing  the  Divine 
Person  and  miraculous  attestations  of  the  Church's 
eternal  Head  ;  it  being  the  memorable  character- 
istic of  most  of  these  attacks  and  theories  that  they 
have  been  already,  in  one  way  or  another,  partially 
or  wholly  abandoned  by  the  great  learning,  the 
marvellously-equipped  science  under  whose  auspices 
they  were  originally  inaugurated. 

It  is  said  that  "  the  exposition  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment has  within  these  forty  years  had  a  wonderful 
progress."  No  doubt  of  it  ;  but  so  far  as  this  prog- 
ress has  been  real  and  healthy,  as  well  as  "  won- 
derful," it  has  by  its  efforts  to  freshen  and  enlarge 
our  knowledge  of  Scripture  details,  served  to  bring 
out  only  in  a  stronger  light  the  primitive  verities  of 
the  ancient  Catholic  tradition.  So  far  as  it  has 
affected  the  general  body  of  doctrine  current  in  our 
day,  its  influence  has  been  shown  in  helping  to 
break  through  and  sweep  aside  the  dogmatic  sys- 
tems of  modern  sectarian  growth  which,  like  so 
many  incrustations,  had  fastened  on  the  old  Nicene 
faith. 

Affain,  it  is  said  that  "  the  masters  of  modern 
exegesis    are  working   together  toward   a   biblical 


Appendix   C.  337 

theology  which  will  hold  up  to  dogmatics  and  ethics 
the  real,  and  in  many  regards  more  complete,  model, 
wherein  they  have  their  standard."  It  is,  then,  the 
grand  aim  of  modern  exegesis  to  work  out  a  theol- 
ogy which  shall  in  some  sense,  not  hitherto  exempli- 
fied, be  essentially  biblical.  Now,  it  is  not  appar- 
ent exactly  what  is  meant  by  such  a  theology  ;  for 
all  Christian  theologies,  however  metaphysical  or 
speculative  in  their  reasonings,  have  professed  to 
claim  no  authority  or  value  save  as  they  were 
grounded  upon  the  Word  of  God.  The  only  re- 
spect in  which  this  is  likely  to  differ  from  the  rest 
must  consist  in  the  rigid  exclusion  of  all  such  rea- 
sonings. It  enters  into  the  very  conception  of  this 
coming  theology  that  it  shall  be  the  result  not  only 
of  a  more  exhaustive  study  of  Holy  Scripture,  but 
of  the  thorough  use  of  the  inductive  method,  i.e., 
first  a  critical  examination  of  all  the  individual 
items  of  revelation,  and  then  a  systematic  classifi- 
cation of  these  items,  and  then  a  deduction  from 
them  of  the  verities  which  form  the  subject-matter 
of  theology. 

Now,  so  far  as  this  process  will  lead  us  back  to 
the  fresh,  vitalizing  views  of  the  person  and  work 


;^2,^  Appendix  C. 

of  Christ  —  his  character,  teaching,  and  offices  ; 
also  of  what  inspired  Apostles  said  and  did  ; 
also  of  what  they  said  and  did  who  sat  at  the 
feet  of  the  Apostles — so  far  as  it  shall  do  this,  it 
will  render  a  most  valuable  service  to  "  dogmatics 
and  ethics. ' '  But  to  the  full  extent  that  it  does  so, 
it  must  inevitably  simply  reproduce  the  mind  of 
Scripture  as  they  originally  interpreted  it  ;  and  so 
reproduce  in  modern  dress  theante-Nicene  theology 
— thus  returning  to  the  fountain-head  for  all  its  gov- 
erning principles,  i.e.,  to  the  Primitive  and  Catholic 
Analogia  Fidei.  The  only  other  rule  which  it  can 
adopt,  as  its  norma  normans,  is  the  items  of  the 
Scripture  wrought  up  into  systematic  shape  by  in- 
dividual critics,  each  acting  independently  on  his 
own  judgment,  and  of  course  more  or  less  biased 
by  the  general  temper  and  genius  of  the  present 
age. 

But  the  result  of  this  process  will  be  as  many 
biblical  theologies,  as  there  are  theological  builders, 
and  therefore  an  aggravation  of  the  present  confu- 
sions and  contradictions.  But,  what  is  more  likely 
to  happen,  these  individual  critics  and  builders  will 
divide  up  into  schools  according  to  some  law  of  in- 


Appendix   C.  339 

tellectual  or  religious  affinity ;  and  so  we  shall  be 
brought  back  to  substantially  the  same  state  of 
things  from  which  this  theology  of  the  future,  rest- 
ing on  an  improved  exegesis,  proposes  to  extricate 
us.  The  fact  is,  it  matters  not  how  much  the  mod- 
ern exegesis  promises  to  accomplish  toward  the 
elimination  from  all  existing  theologies  of  their 
strictly  human  or  positively  alien  elements,  the 
real  value  of  its  work  will  depend  on  the  extent  to 
which  it  accepts,  as  its  guiding  principle,  the  very 
Analogia  Fidei  which  its  chosen  advocates  and  ad- 
mitted masters  profess  to  have  partially  or  wholly 
rejected. 


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